African scrabble champ, Archibong, eyes World Youth title

Africa Youth Scrabble Championship U-19 champion, Prestige Archibong, says he didn’t expect anything less from himself and his teammates at the just concluded championship in Kenya. Speaking on his performance, Archibong said that rolling with the bigwigs in scrabble, watching their every move, and the tactic behind it, helped him to dictate the pace at […]

Africa Youth Scrabble Championship U-19 champion, Prestige Archibong, says he didn’t expect anything less from himself and his teammates at the just concluded championship in Kenya.

Speaking on his performance, Archibong said that rolling with the bigwigs in scrabble, watching their every move, and the tactic behind it, helped him to dictate the pace at the biennial championship.

“We’re very happy we won. It’s a great win. We play with the senior team, we train with them, so I did not expect anything less from Team Nigeria at the championship. The team was a great team. Our team was flawless,” he stressed.

Archibong maintained that the event was challenging for him and for his few teammates, but not strong enough to deter them, as they occupied the top four spots.

“The tournament was not an easy one, it was a very tough tournament. I played against other Nigerians in ten rounds. In fact, the whole tournament was against Nigerians. The toughest player for me was Abdulqudus Aliu, who beat me twice at the start of the tournament, back to back,” he emphasized.

It will be recalled that under the captaincy of Sufyan Olojoku, Team Nigeria also won the U-15 category, as Sophie Ekeruche went unbeaten, winning 18 games with a massive cumulative points of plus 3871 while Hassan Olojoku came third with 13 victories and 1387 points, behind Kenya’s Kingsley Odhiambo who finished second with 14 wins and plus 583 points.

Eliana Igbe another Nigerian finished among the top 10. Her 12 wins from 18 games with cumulative points of plus 1406 left the promising wordsmith in the 6th spot overall behind Kenya’s Adrian Ngache.

The team crown in the U-15 event went to Kenya ahead of Nigeria and Ghana.

In the U-19 category, Nigeria’s Archibong who won the U-15 category two years ago in Lagos edged another member of Team Nigeria Abdulqudus Aliu to win the title with higher cumulative points of plus 2794 against 2568 points. Both players had the same number of wins – 18, from 24 games.

Archibong said having conquered African, he is hungry for more victories so he would transfer the burning desire to the upcoming World Youth Championship.

“The World Youth Championship in Malaysia is coming up. Scrabblers around the world should watch out for us,” he concluded.

Team captain Olojoku was a win shy of Archibong and Aliu just like Joy Nwabuzor and Olive Alila but Sufyan Olojoku finished on the podium because of a better cumulative point.

Nigeria won the team title in the U-19 event ahead of Ghana and Kenya and also took the best country prize.

Apart from Uganda that shares border with host Kenya, Ghana had the largest contingent.