Sports
Kada Queens Ready To Defend Hockey League Title
The Secretary of Kaduna State Hockey Association, Yusfu Abdullahi, has assured that Kada Queens of Kaduna are ready to defend their title at the 2017 Hockey Super League.
Abdullahi said in Abuja that the team which won the title in 2015 and 2016 had prepared adequately to win the 2017 title.
Tidesports source gathered that the league competition got underway at the astro-turf hockey pitch at Package B of the Abuja National Stadium at the weekend.
“Winning the title again will help us show our supremacy,” he said.
“We are coming to defend our title because we are featuring players that are in good shape.
“We have left nothing out in our preparation for the league and we are sure to win,” he added.
Abdullahi said the Kaduna state association would feature both male and female teams in the league.
He said the state’s male team, the Kada Stars, had also prepared well for the league and were also hopeful of a good performance.
It would be recalled that Kada Queens are two-times champions of the league, while Kada Stars came fifth in the 2016 edition of the competition.
The competition, which will feature seven matches each day, has eight male teams featuring, with two-time champions Niger Flickers of Minna and Union Bank of Lagos some of them.
The rest are Yobe Desert Rollers of Damaturu, Police Machine, El-Kanemi Flickers of Maiduguri, Kada Stars of Kaduna, Rivers Kings of Port Harcourt and IGP Flickers.
In the female category of the competition are Kada Queens of Kaduna, Heartland of Owerri, Benue Amazons of Makurdi and IGP Babes.
The rest are Yobe Desert Queens of Damaturu, Plateau Queens of Jos and RIV Queens of Port Harcourt.
The league’s winners in both the male and female categories will represent Nigeria at the Africa Club Championships slated for Egypt 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.