Kunle Adewale
The fourth edition of the Prime Atlantic Squash Tournament served off yesterday at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, with over 190 players, consisting of 125 male players for senior and U19 and 65 female players for senior and U19 categories jostling for the N8.1 million total prize money at stake.
According to the Chairman of the Lagos State Squash Association, Tomi Falase, winners in both male and female in the senior categories would cart home half a million naira each, while in the the boys and girls categories, the winners will go home with fifty thousand naira each. Just as he said that no player would be going home empty handed as every participant will be earning some financial reward.
Asked why there is a sharp increase in the number of participants in this year’s edition, Falase said, “More players are showing interest in squash now and more states are also participating because of the interest the tournament is generating.”
In all, nine states including the Federal Capital Territory, FTC, are participating in this year’s championships.
The states are Lagos, Ogun, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa. Others include Kwara, Abia, Rivers and Oyo states.
For Falase, the successes recorded in the Prime Atlantic Squash Tourney is significantly robbing off on squash development in Nigeria.
“This is the fourth edition and we’ve been seeing growth continuously. We’ve been seeing a lot of development-new players emerging every year, so we are expecting another round of strong competitive games going on and maybe one or two upsets again is expected, and that shows a lot of development going on.
