Shehu Bamidale defied the odds and defeated all in his way to emerge the 2013 National Pool tournament winner at the grand finale last Thursday, Boxing Day December 26 at the Accra Sports Stadium.
Bamidale took home a pool table set, a trophy and Hunter’s Gold souvenirs as his prize for emerging the Ghana Pool champion. Runner-up was Victor Myers who received a 32" flat screen TV and souvenirs from Hunter’s Gold whilst Samuel Noah got a table-top refrigerator and Hunter’s Gold souvenirs for finishing 3rd.
For Nudzor Agbanu, CEO of the Afrodigital Productions organisers of the annual event, staging the final at the nation’s number one sports facility was a clear indication that the sport overseen by the 2009 founded Ghana Snooker Players Association, is finally gaining grounds and national recognition.
He confirmed that the finalists will form the core of the national team that would be selected via justify-your-inclusion exercise for international competitions in Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya next year.
“It’s been very successful I can say that 99.9% of our targets have been met. It’s great especially today that for the first time we are playing at the Accra Sports Stadium which gives the tournament a truly national character,” Mr. Agbanu said in his closing remarks.
He added: “This is the beginning of real development of pool as a big sport in Ghana. It’s going to be held every year thanks to the continued support of companies like Pitsea Ways, Hunter’s Gold and Citizens Concepts who have found it useful to sponsor us.
Kwabena Appiah, Managing Director of Pitsea Ways, your number one cash emergency service, assured the National Pool tournament organisers of their commitment to the sport and has further pledged extending such benevolence to other sporting disciplines.
“We are here to help, support and promote pool playing in Ghana, it’s good to give pool players a competition. Every now and then we help out with sports programmes and pool is one of them. Hopefully next year it will be even bigget than this and we promise to come and help again,” Mr. Appiah told www.sportsinghana.com exclusively.