Sports
Armwrestling Tourney Winner To Represent Nigeria
I cannot wait to represent
Nigeria at an international armwrestling competition,’’ said Raphael Ubah, who defended his 100kg male category title at the Lagos Invitational Armwrestling Championships which ended on Saturday.
Ubah told newsmen after retaining the title that he trained hard before the competition and attributed the feat to sheer determination. “I was devoted to my training because I knew what was at stake. I kept training and banked on luck from God,’’ he said. The Energy Armwrestling Club of Owerri athlete said that though he had yet to represent Nigeria at an international tournament he could not wait to do so. “It’s a relatively new sport in Nigeria and I am putting in so much effort to build up myself for national assignments.
“Every athlete’s dream is to represent his or her country at international competitions,’’ he said. Becky Ademoh, a female 90kg wrestler, who uprooted Ijeoma Soribe, a two-time champion, said that in the last two years she had been playing second fiddle to Soribe. She added that she had been looking forward to the victory because she prepared for it. “It wasn’t an easy task wrestling with her in the final. She is a top athlete that I had to challenge her and win,’’ she said. The Lagos State Armwrestling Club member said she started the sport two years ago, adding that she was impressed with what she had achieved. Soribe, the former female champion, described the loss as unfortunate but promised to re-launch herself and reclaim her title.
“Defeat is not meant to weigh someone down but rather spur one into getting better. Defeat is a challenge to do better,’’ she said. Tidesports source reports that no fewer than 70 armwrestlers took part in the two-day competition at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos. Some of the gold medal winners are Adebukola Adeyanju, Becky Ademoh, Olajide Martins, Adeyinka Adeyemi, Toyin Amode, Ugochukwu Ugonna and Raphael Ubah. The silver medallists are Egbula Asumpta, Ijeoma Soribe, Idris Abubakar, Kingsley Onuoha, Bidemi Yanyanbini, Ogbonna Chukwu and Maxwell Okeke. Ademoh and Ubah emerged the best female and male players respectively and got N 25,000 each. Each gold medalist got N5,000, silver medalists N3,000 and bronze winners N2,000.
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