Sports
‘Professional Kickboxers To Emerge In Nigeria, Soon’
The National Kick-boxing Coach, Cletus Okegbe has assured that professional kick-boxers would soon emerge in Nigeria, as the amateur ones work to graduate into real professionals.
Okegbe told newsmen in Lagos that many amateur kick-boxers would soon complete their mandatory participation in three National Sports Festivals, before being exempted from subsequent ones.
“After the completion of their three mandatory participations, the kick-boxers will be ripe enough to become full professionals.
“This is because the fighters will have gained enough experience from the festivals and the time will be ripe for them to take up the sport professionally.
“By going professional, they will be able to trade overseas and carve a name for themselves,’’ he said.
According to him, kick-boxers started featuring in the National Sports Festivals in 2008 in Kaduna, tagged; ‘Kada 2008.’
“Although, Kada 2008 was non-scoring in Kick-boxing, Kick-boxers have been competing at subsequent festivals which have given them the opportunity to adequately understand the rules governing the sport.
“So by the next national sports festival in Calabar in 2014, they will be fully ready to become professional fighters and make a name for themselves,” he said.
Okegbe said that kick-boxing was like boxing because the game had a professional fighting angle to it, where athletes could actually fight for money and make a living.
He said that he foresaw a bright future for the sport because the country was blessed with an abundance of skillful and strong fighters.
The coach, however, bemoaned the continuous dearth of competitions due to lack of sponsorships and training facilities and equipment, saying they were hindering against the development of the sport.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor