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A Look at African Badminton

A Look at African Badminton - Title Image

As last week the All Africa Men’s & Women’s Team Championships 2022 and the All Africa Individual Championships 2022 took place in Uganda and there is the Uganda International 2022 coming up next week, we will take a look at the winners of the most recent African team tournaments, and see how the rankings look like, if only African players were included.

Team tournaments

The mixed team championship took place last October, the men’s and women’s team championships took place last week. The semi-finalists of these team championships were:

Place Mixed (2021) Men (2022) Women (2022)
1   EGY Egypt ALG Algeria EGY Egypt
2   ALG Algeria EGY Egypt UGA Uganda
3/4   RSA South Africa MRI Mauritius MRI Mauritius
3/4   UGA Uganda RSA South Africa RSA South Africa

So we see a couple of nations who established themselves as the best in Africa. We see Egypt with two first places and one second place. The other nations, Algeria, Mauritius, South Africa and Uganda, all reached the semi-finals at least twice.

Individual Rankings

For these rankings only African players were included. As usual, we demand a minimum of ten matches within the last 750 days and at least one match winthin the last year. Rankings are for the 21st of February, so they reflect the status after the championships and already take the team and the individual championships into account.

Due to the pandemic and the low number of tournaments, rankings are not very populated at the moment. This particularly applies to Africa as there were few tournaments took place within Africa during the last two years. However, last October and last week the individual and team Championships for the respective year took place, so we would expect the best players to have played at least in these tournaments, which should give them enough matches to qualify for these rankings.

As additional information, the column Medal shows the medal won by the player in the recent All African Individual Championship, concluded yesterday.

Men’s Singles

A title for Nigerian Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori, who is also third in these rankings. The top-ranked Georges Julien Paul from Mauritius didn’t take part in the championships. Behind him, the players’ strength values are rather close together, there are only about 0.8 points between rank 2 and 9.

Rank Strength Matches Born Medal Name
1 7.65 16 1996   MRI Georges Julien Paul
2 6.93 29 1998   EGY Adham Hatem Elgamal
3 6.84 21 1997   NGR Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori
4 6.83 34 1992   ALG Adel Hamek
5 6.47 27 1992   ALG Mohamed Belarbi
6 6.47 16 1990   EGY Ahmed Salah
7 6.47 11 1999   NGR Godwin Olofua
8 6.28 14 1995   MRI Aatish Lubah
9 6.15 24 2001   UGA Brian Kasirye
10 5.74 28 2004   RSA Robert White

Women’s Singles

Here, the four top-ranked players didn’t take part in the championships. The title went to Nour Ahmed Youssri from Egypt, who is also one of the youngest players in this list.

Rank Strength Matches Born Medal Name
1 7.83 14 1993   MRI Kate Foo Kune
2 5.05 18 2000   RSA Johanita Scholtz
3 4.90 16 1998   NGR Dorcas Ajoke Adesokan
4 4.73 12 1988   EGY Hadia Hosny
5 4.32 28 2003   EGY Nour Ahmed Youssri
6 4.17 31 1997   EGY Doha Hany
7 4.09 21 2005   UGA Fadilah Shamika Mohamed Rafi
8 3.83 15 2001   UGA Husina Kobugabe
9 3.69 17 2000   ALG Halla Bouksani
10 3.31 11 1996   UGA Gladys Mbabazi

Men’s Doubles

One of two titles to Algerian players. It’s fair to say the title was deserved as Koceila Mammeri and Youcef Sabri Medel hold ranks 2 and 3. Georges Julien Paul didn’t take part in the individual championships, while fourth-ranked Aatish Lubah only played in the singles category.

Rank Strength Matches Born Medal Name
1 8.64 10 1996   MRI Georges Julien Paul
2 8.41 32 1999   ALG Koceila Mammeri
3 8.39 32 1996   ALG Youcef Sabri Medel
4 8.25 12 1995   MRI Aatish Lubah
5 6.70 22 1992   ALG Adel Hamek
6 6.69 23 1992   ALG Mohamed Belarbi
7 6.52 17 1990   EGY Ahmed Salah
8 6.40 20 1997   NGR Anuoluwapo Juwon Opeyori
9 6.40 20 1999   NGR Godwin Olofua
10 6.16 16 1998   EGY Adham Hatem Elgamal

Women’s Doubles

A surprise title for the players from Mauritius who are only ranked 10th and 11th even after their victory. The two top-ranked players, Johanita Scholtz from South Africa and Hadia Hosny from Egypt, didn’t take part in the individual championships.

Rank Strength Matches Born Medal Name
1 5.77 11 2000   RSA Johanita Scholtz
2 4.93 20 1988   EGY Hadia Hosny
3 4.87 32 2005   RSA Amy Ackerman
4 4.38 33 1997   EGY Doha Hany
5 4.20 10 1998   ALG Mounib Celia
6 4.10 25 2003   ALG Tanina Violette Mammeri
7 4.08 18 1995   RSA Deidre Laurens Jordaan
8 3.95 22 2003   EGY Nour Ahmed Youssri
9 3.86 14 2001   UGA Husina Kobugabe
10 3.70 11 2003   MRI Lorna Bodha

Mixed Doubles

Mixed doubles is the only discipline won by the top-ranked players. The Algerian siblings of Koceila and Tanina Violette Mammeri already established quite a profound lead, ranked almost two points ahead of the third-ranked player.

Rank Strength Matches Born Medal Name
1 7.36 17 1999   ALG Koceila Mammeri
2 7.32 25 2003   ALG Tanina Violette Mammeri
3 5.55 28 1998   EGY Adham Hatem Elgamal
4 5.39 29 1997   EGY Doha Hany
5 4.86 28 2005   RSA Amy Ackerman
6 4.84 20 2000   RSA Jarred Elliot
7 4.61 10 2001   UGA Brian Kasirye
8 4.61 11 1990   EGY Ahmed Salah
9 4.60 24 2004   RSA Robert White
10 4.47 18 1995   RSA Deidre Laurens Jordaan

Conclusion

Badminton is definitely alive and active in Africa. We saw Algeria and Egypt take most of the titles. Nigeria and Mauritius won one title each, while South Africa and Uganda had to settle for silver medals. Although the level is not yet comparable to other continents as can be seen from the low strength values.

You can watch many of the matches on the YouTube channel of Badminton Africa.

  Africa , Ranking , Simulation
  All Africa Individual Championships 2022 , All Africa Men's & Women's Team Championships 2022 , Uganda International 2022