Sports
AFN To Open Season With All-Comers Championships
The 2011 Nigerian athletics season will begin with the National All Comers Championships next month, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) announced on Wednesday in Abuja.
The championships, which are in three editions, are the first on the list of major athletics events the federation has planned for the year.
According to AFN’s calendar of activities, the first edition of the All-Comers championships will hold from February 18 to February 19 in Ibadan, after the affiliation and registration of clubs, states and teams this month.
A copy of the calendar made available to Tidesports also shows that a 10km/5km road race is also scheduled for February, on a date and venue yet to be decided, while seven events have been lined up for March.
The second and third editions of the All-Comers Championships are to hold from March 4 to March 5 in Lagos and from March 18 to March 19 in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
AFN is also planning to send a team to the first African Cross-Country Championships scheduled for March 6 in Cape Town, South Africa.
Two 5km road races are also planned for the month on dates and venues yet to be fixed, while AFN is proposing a team to the 39th IAAF World Cross-Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain, on March 20.
According to the calendar, March 25 and March 26 will witness the Pastor D.K. Olukoya Under-16 and Under-18 National Trials at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos.
Four activities have been planned for April, including the Chief of Naval Staff/AFN Golden League scheduled for Abuja from April 15 to April 16, and the CAA Region II Junior Championships.
The junior championships, which are continental events, are to hold from April 27 to April 30 at a venue to be decided later by the AFN.
In May, two of AFN’s four activities include two editions of the AFN Golden League, with the one named after Bishop David Oyedepo will hold from May 6 to May 7 in Kaduna.
The other one named after Pastor Enoch Adeboye will hold in Warri from May 20 to May 21, while the federation will send a team to the African Youth Championships in Gaborone, Botswana, scheduled for May 12 to May 15.
The leagues will culminate in the Final Golden League from June 3 to June 4 at a venue to be picked later, with the annual Mobil championships holding in Calabar.
The event, which has been renamed the Nigeria/Cross River/NNPC/ExxonMobil Track and Field Championships, will hold from June 23 to June 27.
Similarly, the 5th Abuja CAA Grand Prix will hold on July 2, while upcoming Nigerian athletes will take part in the National Sports Festival scheduled for Port Harcourt from June 29 to July 9.
The AFN is, however, looking into the possibility of sending some Nigerian athletes to the 7th IAAF World Youth Championships scheduled for Lille, France, from July 6 to July 10.
Preparations will thereafter commence for the 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics scheduled for Daegu, South Korea, from August 27 to September 4.
According to the calendar, the 10th All-Africa Games will hold from Sept. 3 to Sept. 18 in Maputo, Mozambique, and the Commonwealth Youth Games from Sept. 7 to Sept. 13 at the Isle of Man, a former British colony.
Those preparations, as well as attendance of the World Mountain Running Championships and Congress in Albania from September 8 to September 12, will thus keep the AFN busy later in July and August.
The National Obudu Mountain Race is to hold in Cross River on Oct. 8, ahead of the 7th Obudu International Mountain Race and 3rd African Challenge at the same venue on November 26.
The Lagos Marathon, of which no date has been fixed, will round off the country’s athletics programme for the year in December.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.