Eloundou Sisters Make Cameroon Proud

They won gold and silver in the African junior tennis championship in Senegal during which Cameroon emerged second.

The Eloundou sisters, Linda and Manuela have made Cameroon proud at the just ended African junior tennis championship in Senegal. In an all Cameroon encounter in the final in simple category, Manuela defeated her sister, Linda to grab gold while the unfortunate finalist won silver. They both won gold in the double series beating Aishata and Keita from Mali in three straight sets.

It is worthy to note that the girls are barely 12 years old but were upgraded to play in the U-14 category due to their exceptional talents. In the male category, Wamba Paul Brunei also won gold in the simple series and combined with Paul Vince from Benin to win silver in the double series in the U-12 category. Their overall performance earned Cameroon the second position on the general medal classification table.

Togo came first and Cote d'Ivoire was third. It is worthy to note that Cameroon participated with the least number of athletes (three) and yet was able to perform better than the other delegations that came with at least seven athletes. There were 60 participants were drawn from 12 participating countries from Central, West and North Africa.

Commenting on the brilliant performance of the Cameroonian athletes, the president of the Cameroon Tennis Federation, Jean Marie Abouna said it was proved of the hard work they have been carrying out at the level of the federation with meager means owing to the lack of support from public authorities.

He disclosed that it has been five years since the federation received any assistance from government and for three years the federation has been suspended from international competitions due to non-payment of dues. To participate in the Senegal tournament, the federation had to link up with the association of parents of tennis players in Cameroon, ASCAPAJOTE, to earn a place in the competition.

A view corroborated by the promoter of ASCAPAJOTE, Eloundou Gaspard Joel who said together with the parents of Wamba Paul Brunei, had to pay for certain aspects of their children's trip to Senegal from their private pockets. He said if only a minute fraction of what was being spent on football was put in tennis, it will produce champions as there is a lot of talent in Cameroon.

At the end of the tournament in Senegal, six youths, three Cameroonians, two Togolese and one Nigerian, were selected to benefit from a scholarship offered by the International Tennis Association. They will undergo training at the Africa Tennis Excellence Centre in Casablanca-Morocco. It is worthy to mention that the Eloundou sisters were already undergoing training at a sports and studies centre in Lome-Togo. Should they continue progressing then one day we may be talking of the Eloundou sisters like the Wiliams; Venus and Serena.