Yamousoukro — Racket games at the on-going West Africa Polytechnics Games (WAPOGA) started yesterday with Nigeria poised to make a clean sweep. While table tennis got well under way, badminton, which was earlier rumoured to have been dropped did not start until late in the evening due to disagreement over officials for the game and players' profiles.

It was smooth sweet victory for Yaba College of Technology's trio of Rasheedat Ogundele, her elder sister and Nigeria international, Ganiyat and Alhaja Morufat Onipede as they made mince meat of Cape Coast Polytechnic's (Ghana) duo of Suzan Alma Hughes and Glory Botwe. In the ladies singles, Rasheedat beat Glory in three straight set while Ganiyat cruised to an easy win over Suzan by three straight sets.

In the doubles, the Ghanaians came strongly, snatching a hard won 2-1 lead but were pegged by the combination of Rasheedat and Alhaja Morufat, as they came back to win 3-2. In another game, Titi Odejide of Polytechnic, Ibadan lost her singles event game to Kehinde Lydia of Plateau State Polytechnic, Barkin Ladi, but her pair Alhaja Alimat Usain the even, beating Rimini Abarshi of Barkin Ladi in three straight sets. Both Titi and Alhaja Alimat won the doubles event agaiAst Barkin Ladi by three straight sets.

The delay in badminton take off according to the games coordinator, Evans Wilson, a Ghanaian international coach, has been blamed on misunderstanding between his country and Nigeria, over the choice of officiating and players' profile. According to him, the delay is regretted, promising that subsequent confrontations will be limited to the court. Both countries dominate the sport but Nigeria has higher representation of six players while Ghana has four. Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta was billed to play Ho Polytechnic Ghana before the disruption while Ibadan was getting set to entertain Kumasi Polytechnic, Ghana.

Koforidua Polytechnic Ghana and Yabatech were paired in what has been described as a tough fixture. The last match was to take place between two Nigerian sides, Federal Polytechnic, Bida and Kaduna. Bida was favoured as the most possible qualifiers to the next round. The matches were moved till late in the evening afterwards.

Meanwhile, Nigerian athletes have been advised to shun all occasion of possible confrontation that could lead to violence at the games.

Speaking on the domination of the games by Nigerian athletes, which exceeds one thousand, Chief Coach of Federal Polytechnic, Kaduna, Garba Musa alerted the athletes on ploy that could destabilise the team, reminding them that they are no longer on familiar terrain.

"This is not Nigeria but we can win if our athletes calm down even in the face of frustration and verbal attack from host institution crowd. It is normal in sport and only the cool headed passes the psychological test."