The duo of Bamidele Shehu and Aderibigbe Adegbite a.k.a ‘Boss’ has arrived Lagos yesterday, Wednesday 30th August 2023 on board Ethiopian Airline from China to Lagos via Addis Ababa.
Both players who qualified to play at the Joy Cup Masters Div One Tour 3 are the first Nigerian to participate in an international event of Heyball recognised by the International Heyball Pool Association (IHPA) and the World Billiard Pool Association.
The duo participated in the just concluded Joy Cup Heyball Master Div One Tour 3 that took place in Shijiazhuang, china which was a double elimination contest. Amongst the many other top international players who featured in the event included Gareth Potts, Chris Melling, Eden Sharav and many top Chinese players seeking points on the international Heyball circuit.
Despite the event offering an opportunity and benefit for the players gaining the exposure and experience playing at the international stage, Adegbite lost his first two games and was eliminated according to the rules while Shehu lost his first game, won second game but lost his 3rd game 7 – 3 to his top chinese opponent.
With the early return of the players because of lack of adequate sponsorship, both players had miss out of the opportunity to play in the Qualifiers for Joy Heyball Masters Super Cup which features 64 players comprising 32 invited international players and 32 top Local Chinese player. If they had played and qualified they would have earn at least 10,000 RMB prize money.
As at the time of filing this update, amongst the other top international players who had arrived for the Super Cup include Kelly Fisher, British no 1 female Billiard Sports players and former world female champion in Snooker, English Billiards. Ball, 10 Ball and 9 Ball.
The next edition of the Joy Cup Heyball Masters DIV One which is the Tour 4 hold in October 2023. The date and venue are yet to announced by Joy Billiards and IHPA organizes of the event but the Nigeria Qualifiers is scheduled to hold in 1st week of October 2023.
‘We are not playing Pool in Nigeria. What I witnessed there is that we have to train and train very hard. They are far ahead and now the target is not for us to win the prize money but for us to work hard so that we can close the skill gap and be among the top’
Said Aderibigbe who spoke with asentv.tv on their return
‘Despite the overall performance of our performance players our objective was first for them to gain the require exposure and experience. This we have met so we see this as a win for Alliance.. Going forward we focus on getting a better result by our representative so that they get into the top ten cadre so they can qualify to play in the Super Cup in the Future. I will use this platform to encourage those Pool players interested in build a career off Pool to join the Alliance ‘
‘We also want to focus on get better sponsorship for these players so i call on corporate Nigeria to support this initiative of creating opportunity for our youth through Sports like Heyball because lots of talent in the street of Nigeria. Any investment on these players is money well spent and cost effective when compared to other sports and marketing opportunity. It will be a win-win for the brands and their image. They can reach a niche market and population’
says Joachim idada, president Snooker and Pool Players Alliance.
Bamidele Shehu and Aderibigbe participation was sponsored by Joy Billiards, FIJI Ventures Limited and Moneytronics Microfinance Bank
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