After two days of action, the para events will take centre stage at the 53rd Asoju Oba Molade Okoya-Thomas Cup taking place at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of Teslim Balogun Stadium.
With the conclusion of the group matches in the singles (men and women), the knockout stage (round of 32) began yesterday with some of the top seeds still in the race for the coveted title.
According to the tournament referee John Peters, the para events for sitting and standing athletes will begin on Friday December 3 with all eyes on Ahmed Koleosho, two-time Paralympian in the sitting event against other competitors.
“We are so excited that the turnout has been impressive despite the reduction in the number of events. Most of the junior players are competing with the seniors which for us would help them to be stronger and we believe this is an opportunity for them to rub shoulders with the top players.
“The para division has received a lot of entries and we are hoping that we can produce more Paralympians like Koleosho from this competition. I must also commend the sponsors for their thoughtfulness in including the para events this year. Also in the absence of the men’s singles defending champion Adeyinka Ahmed we hope we can have a new champion again while Bose Odusanya will not have it easy in the women’s singles as well,” Peters said.
The finals of the doubles event (men and women) will be held on Friday December 3 while the knockout in the singles event will be concluded as well.The finals take place on Tuesday December 7.
