Badminton Family Celebrates Oyinleye’s Feat

BY VICTOR OSOWOCHI – The Nigerian Badminton Community is celebrating and rejoicing with one of its own, Miss Naomi Adeoyi Oyinleye, for adding a new feather to her career cap in the racquet sport.

Oyinleye, a certified National Badminton umpire, has been found competent in service delivery and upgraded to the rank of Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) certificated umpires.

Her feat followed the BCA’s Umpires Assessment that took place in Casablanca, Morocco during the All African Games held in August, 2019.

A statement signed by Patricia Okaja Nnandi for the Director Press, Federal Ministry of Sports and Youths Development, said the last time Nigerian umpires were upgraded by the BCA was about 20 years ago at the All African Senior Championships held in Bauchi, Nigeria where a group of five (5) Nigerian Umpires were certified in year 2000 .

The statement quoted the President, Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN), Mr Francis Orbih Esq as expressing joy and satisfaction with the upgrade, saying; “it was one of the major thing they wanted to achieve when the Board gave the nod for the commencement of series of Umpires Training courses which started in August 2018”.

Mr Orbih said BFN has always believed that growth of the game is not only about players’ development, but should also involve developing the technical department of the game.

He said in line with the administration’s policies, plans are underway to develop and upgrade Coaches as part of ongoing efforts at grassroot development of badminton in the country.

“The overall development of these sectors of the game is a continuous exercise that cannot be overemphasised”, the BFN boss said.

Mr Orbih, who assured that BFN under his leadership will spare no efforts at achieving its noble objectives, said; “These, among other crucial areas are what we will like to see firmly in place to justify the confidence that various stakeholders in the game have reposed in us”.

A product of the Umpires Training Courses (UTC) conducted by the Orbih-led BFN, Naomi Oyinloye was invited along with Adebayo George Ilori by the BCA to be part of the officiating officials at the All African Games in Morocco.

Interestingly, while Adebayo Ilori was invited as a referee, Miss Oyinloye attended the continental sporting fiesta as an umpire.

At present, the BFN Leadership is also encouraging Ilori to pursue the BCA Referee Certification

An excited BFN family noted that the duo’s invitation to the All African Games was unprecedented in the history of African Badminton’s umpiring.