The President of the Nigeria Squash Federation (NSF), Boye Oyerinde, has expressed his delight with the performance of Team Nigeria at the recently-concluded Men’s World Team Squash Championship in New Zealand.
Oyerinde, in an exclusive chat with TOP MEDIA, pointed out that moving from 21st position in 2019 to 15th at the 2023 edition is commendable.
He said: “We are quite happy with the team as the team performed better than our last outing in Washington DC where we came 21st.
“The team put up their best despite the challenges faced making it to the championship.”
Also speaking to TOP MEDIA, Gabriel Olufunmilayo, expressed his confidence that the team will perform better in the next championship.
The Team Nigeria member told TOP MEDIA: “It is a world team event as we all know. It’s not an easy one, but we proved to the world we have potential squash players in Nigeria because most of these top players were surprised to see us play such a good squash.
“It’s our first experience competing at such a big event. I’m pretty sure we going to do better next time.”
For another participating player, Kehinde Samuel, the tournament was “an eye-opener” as many of the Nigerian representatives were exposed to playing at a very high level where the best in each country of the 24 teams came to compete.
Samuel told TOP MEDIA: “We showed what Nigeria is capable of at the global stage and to be fair, it was a success for us in the end.
“The tournament gave us opportunities to learn and unlearn the kind of squash required at a high level. We are close to it in Nigeria but we’ve got to push further.
“With the help of our team captain leading us (Babatunde Ajagbe) and the NSF president, the trip was a success and I’m sure every Nigerian and others that have interest in our game enjoyed the output we set into the tournament.”
