Sports
Kida Lauds Team Over Impressive Performance
The Nigeria Basketball Federation again etched its name on silver following another winning feat by the national under-18 boys and girls teams last Sunday in Mali at the FIBA Africa 3×3 championship.
The President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, Engineer Musa Kida commended the teams’ efforts, adding that the country has the potentials to dominate Africa and become a strong force in world basketball with adequate planning and preparation.
This he said showed in the qualification of 4 different national basketball teams for finals of FIBA organized tournaments since the new NBBF board was sworn in on the 21st of July.
Kida expressed optimism that with better preparations, the future remains bright while still eulogizing the gold medal winning D’Tigress and the D’Tigers for performing nothing short of miracles despite limited days of Afrobasket preparations.
“Only 2 weeks camping for D’Tigers, a team that played matches at the competition without really playing together and the kind of commitment the boys had, I cannot but commend them for performing this miracle.”
Kida expressed belief that Nigeria had enough talents home and abroad to produce world class athletes with 3 of its players bagging individual awards at the Afrobasket for men.
“Our captain, Ike Diogu is the best basketballer in Africa as he was chosen as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament as he scored the most points at the tournament. Ikenna Iroegbu was also picked in the tournament’s best 5 while Afam Nwamu claimed the best 3 point shooter.”
He assured that the federation will leave no stone unturned to give the D’Tigers adequate support and preparations needed for a successful world cup qualifying campaign starting in February, 2018.
He added that with early start and better preparations for the Sam Vincent coached D’Tigress, he is confident that the team will not just be at the World cup as mere participants, but will do the nation proud.
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
