Sports
Athletes Lists Gains Of Abuja Meet
Athletes at the 2017/2018 All Comers Athletics Meet in Abuja say the event will boost the country’s chances at the next Commonwealth Games and other international tournaments.
The athletes spoke in separate interviews with newsmen, yesterday in Abuja at the end of the two-day event.
Tidesorts source gathered that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) held the Meet for more than 200 athletes between November 24 and 25.
Our source also stated that the AFN board, led by Ibraheem Gusau, promised “to do things differently’’ in order to get better results at international tournaments.
The board has decided to start new season this month instead of January.
The first four athletes in each track and field event in the competition qualified for Golden League in Kaduna, scheduled to hold between December 2 and December 3.
One of them, Bamidele Emmanuel of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), winner of the 400 meters men said, “this competition has helped my preparations for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia’’.
“I have been training for the Commonwealth, but having competed now, I have learnt how hard I still need to train to get good results at the Commonwealth Games and other competitions,” he said.
According to Tidesports source, Emmanuel finished 47.17 seconds, which was two seconds short of AFN standard for men.
Similarly, Grace Ayemoba of Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) winner, Women 100 meters hurdles who finished 13.81 seconds, a split second short of AFN A-standard, said it was a good start for her.
“Early commencement of 2018 season shows that Nigeria will definitely make significant impact in upcoming international competitions.’’
In a related development, National Coach of Distance Running, Stephen Nuhu, commended AFN leadership for its effort to reverse the country’s poor performance in the sport.
“Only for making provision for distant running as potential medal event for the country, the board has proven its competence for Nigeria’s sports development to global height.”
“With the appointment of national technical crew for the game, we will bring out talents that will win medals at regional and global competitions,” he said.
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