By MOSES CHIMFWEMBE –
ZAMBIA’S female top seed Ogar Siamupangila minted a silver medal at the just-ended Yonex Mauritius International Badminton championship staged at National Badminton Centre in Rose Hill.
Ogar put up an impressive performance in the women doubles on Sunday when she teamed up with Nigeria’s number one Grace Gabriel whom she lost to in the first round of the women singles.
The duo was unstoppable, posting an emphatic 21-7, 21-4 victory over the Ramchurn sisters of Deepti and Smiti of Mauritius in the quarter-final before putting up a brave fight coming from a set down to beat South Africans Sandra Le Grange and Jennifer Fry 21-23, 21-19, 21-15 to progress to the final.
Ogar and Gabriel could, however, not match the quality of an Iranian pair Negin Amiripour and Aghaei Soraya, losing in two straight sets in the final via 28-26, 21-14 set scores.
Her sister, Evelyn failed to go past the first round as she succumbed to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Elme de Villiers of South Africa. The Siamupangila sisters were the only Zambian representatives at the championship. Meanwhile, Ogar has maintained sixth position on the Badminton Confederation of Africa women rankings.