Rivers, Delta Claim Gold In Badminton Men, Women’s Singles

Rivers’ Clement Korobakpo and Dorcas Adesokan of Delta State have respectively emerged the badminton men and women’s singles gold medallists at the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos.

 Korobakpo defeated Gideon Babalola of Delta 2- 0 to win the men’s gold, while Adesokan thrashed Augustine Sunday of FCT, also by 2-0, to win the women’s gold.

It was Korobakpo third and last time to feature in the festival and he told Tidersports after his victory that he was full of joy retiring from the biennial event with a gold medal.

“It is a long life and a proud achievement. I am proud to retire from the festival with the ultimate medal.

“For me, it is a victory I worked very hard for and I really thank God for this one.

“I won a silver in the last Games in Port-Harcourt; I can blame that loss to the poor quality of facilities, as compared with what  is obtaind in Lagos.

“I am a gold medalist today and I’m proud and I now look forward to the doubles and mixed doubles events and hopefully a National call up,’’ Korobakpo added.

Delta Head Coach, Fatai Tokosi, said that he had mixed feelings towards the gold and silver medals his athletes won.

“We won the women’s singles gold but lost the men’s singles gold to Rivers. This was because our men’s finalist, Babalola, was exhausted.

“Anyway, I am still impressed with my players’ performance. That is sports for you; you either lose or win. Let just say the better side won today,’’ Tokosi said.

Babalola, the men’s singles silver medallist, said that although he worked for the gold medal, he was satisfied with the silver.

Adesokan, the women’s singles champion said that she was still nursing the ambition of picking the women’s and the mixed doubles gold medals.