Ghana’s Golden Shuttlers produced an impressive opening day in the individual events of the 2026 All Africa U-19 Badminton Championship in Cairo, Egypt, with several players advancing to the quarter-finals.
The Ghanaian contingent recorded a number of hard-fought victories and impressive comebacks as the individual competition got underway, with most of the players successfully progressing from the Round of 32 to the Round of 16.
Obabompa Adu Mintah provided a particularly emphatic start to Ghana’s campaign, securing a commanding 15-0, 15-0 victory to announce his presence in the competition in style.
Ghana fielded three players in the men’s singles, with one advancing to the quarter-finals, while the country’s three representatives in the women’s singles were unable to progress.
The Golden Shuttlers, however, enjoyed considerable success in the doubles events, booking places in the quarter-finals of both the men’s doubles and women’s doubles. Ghana will also continue its campaign in the mixed doubles as the competition enters another crucial stage.
President of the Ghana Badminton Association, Evans Yeboah, described the opening day as exciting and expressed satisfaction with the team’s progress.
“It’s been exciting. Day one of the individual events has been very, very good. We started off very well with a 15-0 and another 15-love victory, which gave us our first win with Adu Mintah.
“The other players subsequently followed and were able to stage some massive comebacks, including against Egypt in the women’s doubles, which we won in the final match of the day.
“For us, it has been very, very exciting, and it has now taken a number of our players into the quarter-finals. That is very encouraging as we go into tomorrow.
“We have a slight injury concern, but the medical team will be attending to it today. Some of our matches were very close, with the winning margin being quite small, but we are confident that after treatment tonight, the players will be back on their feet and ready to give 100 per cent in the quarter-final matches tomorrow.
“We still have the men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles to compete in, so there are opportunities across all these events.
“Our target remains to win medals in these events, following the team bronze medal we secured after losing by just one point. So, for us, we are excited about the progress and remain focused on the task ahead.”
