By Eric Ojo
Community Sport and Educational Development (CSED) Initiative, a frontline Non-governmental Organisation (NGO), in collaboration with South East Badminton has organised a two-day badminton clinic secondary school student in Nsukka, Enugu State.
The grassroots outreach training, which is the first to be jointly facilitated by the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and CSED Initiative, was held at St Theresa’s College Nsukka.
The training, according to a statement by CSED’s founder, Mr. Cornelius Ehimiaghe was held as part of the two-year grassroots badminton development programme that was signed in April 2022.
Mr. Ehimiaghe said the goal of this two-day training event is to build the capacity of the games masters/mistresses at the grassroots level and to provide Nigerian children/youths with access to learn the basic skills and technicalities that is required to develop their talent in badminton.
The Zonal Representative of South East Badminton Federation, Obiageli Edoga Solaja and some badminton coaches coordinated the training. The clinic had in attendance students from 10 secondary schools and 12 games masters and mistresses from secondary schools in the Nsukka zone of Enugu State.
Students from five boys’ schools and five girls’ schools in the Nsukka zone attended the event. The boys’ schools are; St Theresa’s College, Nsukka High School, Urban Boys Secondary School Nsukka and Community Secondary School Nru.
The girls’ schools include; St Cyprian’s Girls Secondary School, St Cyprian’s Special School, Urban Girls Secondary School and Queen of the Rosary Secondary School Nsukka. Also in attendance were two mixed schools – Community Secondary School, Isienu and Government Technical College.
At the end of the event, more than one hundred badminton rackets, shuttlecocks and badminton nets were donated to representatives of the schools that were in attendance. Moreover, medals were also presented to some of the students that excelled in the demonstration games.
“More than forty participants attended this event and some of them expressed their gratitude to the event organizers for taking their grassroots badminton development event to Nsukka. It would be recall that the South East produced Obiageli Solaja (nee Edoga) who was in the 1980s the African women’s badminton champion”, the statement added.