Sports
All Africa Badminton Championship Begins In PH
The 2019 All Africa Senior Badminton Championship billed for Port Harcourt between today and weekend serves off at the main hall of the Alfred Diete-Spiff Sports Complex today.
Already, most of the 18 countries expected for the championship being sponsored by the Rivers State government in conjunction with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria, BFN, arrived Port Harcourt at the weekend.
Most of the teams held other training sessions at the venue yesterday and are ready to go. According to the organisers, the championship will commence with the opening ceremony and the team events today.
Meanwhile, towards a successful media coveys of the championship, the BFN yesterday organised a one day retreat on the fundamentals of the game for members of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Rivers State chapter.
The retreat was held at the Alfred Diete Spiff sports complex Port Harcourt, yesterday ahead the All Africa Senior Badminton Championship (AASBC) slated for today in the state.
Speaking at the event the resource person, Deputy Referee of the championship, Bayo Ilori, explained that the game has single, doubles and mix doubles players.
According to him, the match consists of best of three games of 21 points adding that, at 20 all, the player who gains a two points lead first, wins the game.
“At 29 all, the side scoring the 30th points win that game. The side winning a game server first in the game. The same counting for single doubles and mix -doubles,”Ilori said.
He further explained that, if the laws are continuously broken by a player then the referee has the power to dock that player points and can disqualify him for persistent faults.
“Players must serve diagonally across the net to their opponent. The referee has overriding call on infringement and faults. The game has only two rest period,’ he noted.
He also said that, a red card is given to a single player or doubles pair to penalize subsequent infractions after receiving a yellow card, adding that it counts as fault.
The judge noted that opposing side is awarded apoint saying that, after a second red card a player or pair may be disqualified with a black card by the umpire after being authorised by the referee.
Kiadum Edookor
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