By John Egbokhan
Nigeria has emerged tops at the Central and West Africa 14 and under boys and girls junior tennis tournament in Dakar, Senegal.

Leading the Nigerian clean sweep of the top prizes at the developmental programme, was Sarah Adegoke, who scooped three gold medals in three categories.

So impressive and dominant was the performance of Adegoke that she was named the most valuable player of the week-long tournament, attended by no fewer than 40 players from countries from the Central and West Africa region.

Also registering her name on the winners’ templates, another Nigerian girl, Zainab Oladimeji, who held her nerves to upstage Senegal’s Setey Aminat to land the top prize in the under-12 girls category.

In the boys 14 and under category, Emmanuel Idoko, younger brother of Candy Idoko, captured the gold medal, courtesy of a 6-2, 6-4 straight sets win against Ghana’s Charles Annan.

And completing the clean-sweep of laurels, Tokeme Chukwuma beat Togo’s Yokovi Lango 6-4, 6-6 to make it a remarkable outing for the boys and girls from Nigeria.

Speaking on the players’ performance, a member of the delegation to the tournament, Margaret Olagundoye, said that the players impressed on and off the court and added that the future was bright for them if special attention is paid to them.

“We need to support our junior players because the senior ones that we have now are just not up to scratch. Our best hope of recovery is to focus more on junior players like the ones that went to Senegal”, said Olagundoye, a former Nigerian number one.