The Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), have just concluded the 9th edition of the Lagos International Badminton Classics, on the 29th of August, 2026.
The indoor sports hall of the National Institute of Sports (NIS),National Stadium, Surulere, the venue for the Classics was filled with participants from countries all around the world came to participate in the tournament which got started on Wednesday 26th.
The Indians dominated the Classics by winning the Men's Singles, Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles. UAE won the Women's Singles while Thailand won the Men's Doubles.
Sadly, the Nigerian players performance was not good enough for applause as they only managed to win two bronze medals in the Women's Doubles and Mixed Doubles categories. They were beaten flat in all the other categories.
However, it is not all together hopeless, though their very low performance has pointed out the fact that the coaches and the players need to double up on their skills as well as get more exposure to international tournaments if they will be able to garner points to better their world ranking and be on the path to qualify for LA '28 as that remains the most important defining metric for qualification for the LA 28 Olympic Games in just two years away.
The Lagos International Badminton Classics is the highest ranked and most prestigious annual open badminton tournament in Africa. It occupies the elite status in Africa and it is sanctioned by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) and the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA). It is an International Challenge with a cash prize of $20,000.
The Lagos Classics serves as an Olympic qualifying event, used for ranking players towards qualification for the Olympics.
influence an ability to perform excellently well are important in ultimately controlling the incidence of a vast report of poor visibility, so international exposure of the Nigerian players to these elite players and high caliber games, may also bring about lifestyle changes that can influence their ability to improve and perform excellently well in competitions within and outside Africa.
The Lagos International Badminton Classics is a way back event and here in the 9th edition, the highest ranked badminton championship in Africa, Twenty six countries (26) from all around the world were represented with one hundred and forty nine (149) players present for the tournament and Out of the 149 players, Nigeria presented forty-seven (47) players for this year’s edition.
The next edition which will be the 10th, will be an Olympic qualifying one and so more players from all over the world would be here to try and garner points to help them towards LA 28 Olympics qualification, according to Oby Solaja, (Mrs.). She hails from Enugu State, an Atlanta '96 Olympian, a member of the Board of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria representing the South East zone. She is married to a veteran sports journalist, Mr. Kunle Solaja, the publisher of sportsvillagesquare, an online sport newspaper. She played badminton and represented Nigeria for 17 years.
Participants also shared their views on the tournament; how they trained to come for the Classics, and how ready they were to get the best out of it.
A statement shared with kingstonco blogger noted that the tournament which attracted participants from the diaspora was made possible again by the resilience passionate effort of the president Francis Obi.
View Photo Album of the tournament👇
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