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Opeyori\u2019s journey to the top of African badminton started in unexpected fashion \u2013 since he was actually playing Nigeria\u2019s favourite sport at the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was playing football with my friends when the coach saw us,\u201d he explained as he walked around the Rowe Park sport complex, where his journey began, in Lagos.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he had very good insight because we were just normal kids playing football. But he introduced the game to us and immediately that he gave me the racket, I bonded with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite having neither a racket nor shoes, with Opeyori borrowing both, a love had been born yet any hopes of rapid progress were further stymied by the limited badminton facilities in Africa\u2019s most populous nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will amaze you to know that in Nigeria, we don\u2019t have a single badminton facility \u2013 not one,\u201d Francis Orbih, the president of the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn most public places, what you have is a multi-purpose hall \u2013 so that\u2019s table tennis, badminton, gymnastics, boxing, basketball, handball etc. in just one hall. So when basketball has a two-week programme, badminton can\u2019t train and that is a huge drawback.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a trip to Asia in 2018 that changed Opeyori\u2019s career, says Orbih.<\/p>\n
For the year after attending a two-month training camp in Indonesia, a country that boasts eight Olympic badminton golds (and 21 overall), Opeyori won the first of his record four African men\u2019s singles titles.<\/p>\n
Having won the last three on offer, the African champion is now tipped to make his continent proud at the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anyone is going to be able to break the jinx, it\u2019s him \u2013 he has the capacity to do it,\u201d says Orbih.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is disciplined, hardworking and passionate about the game, and that is what has brought him to where he is and kept him there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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