Lagos State U-15 squash player Dominion Utakpe on Sunday retained his gold medal in the boys’ singles category after he defeated Anthony Monday from Delta state at the ongoing 6th edition of the National Youths Games in Ilorin. He won the 5th edition in 2019.
Utakpe who had scaled the hurdles of screening when at first he was disqualified, but was later rescreened after much intervention from the state delegates which he represented for and other coaches from other states who had monitored his progress when he caught his teeth in squash games at age 10.
His road to the final in this edition started with a bye in the third round and later witnessed victory against Kennedy Monday from Akwa United 11-3, 11-3 in the quarter final while he scaled through Ibrahim Abdulazeez from Kwara state and he maintained his gold with major a straight win 11-6, 11-5 and 11-8 against Anthony Monday from Delta state.
In a chat with sportxvibe.com.ng, he shared his experiences he went through when he screened out by the screening team: “I felt kind of bad but I was relieved about it but when I became bad again was when my team mate were crying that I wasn’t going to play in this edition, I just had a mood swing.” He said.
The elated National U-15 champion tied his possibility of retaining the gold, saying “It is God”, adding that: “I feel great and happy to win another medal”.
He added that his dream has been to become a world champion.