By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
ZAMBIAN players rekindled the country’s hopes of minting medals at the ongoing Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) Under-15 Africa Championship in Uganda after storming the quarterfinals in the singles events.
Budding stars Kalombo Mulenga, Joyrain Mumba and Annette Njobvu put up an impressive performance to reach the last eight after suffering elimination from the team events on Friday following four straight defeats.
Mulenga put up an impressive performance when he subdued Muzafaru Lubega of Uganda in two straight sets with a 21-18, 21-16 score in the second round of the boy’s singles to advance to the quarterfinals.
Andrew Mumba was, however, eliminated from the competition after falling at the hands of Uganda’s Expedito Emuddu via a 2-1 score.
In the girls’ singles, Mumba progressed to the round of eight thanks to a 2-0 victory over Shania Leung of Mauritius with set scores of 22-20, 22-20 while Njobvu, who squared up against Uganda’s Bridget Makasi, posted an emphatic 21-18, 21-16 win to advance.
By Press time yesterday, Mumba and Njobvu were scheduled to play the Ugandan duo of Nidhi Ranjit and Nagarajan Srinivasan in the girls’ doubles.
