Sports
Champion Of Champions Tourney: Adekuoroye, Onyebuchi, Others Shine
The maiden Baraza Champion of Champions Wrestling Tournament came to an end on Monday in Yenagoa, with Blessing Onyebuchi, Amas Daniel and teenager, Mercy Adekuoroye all impressively claiming the last three gold medals at stake on the final day of the competition.
World champion in beach wrestling, Onyebuchi displayed absolute class and utter dominance to land gold in the 76kg class in her first tournament in almost a year, no thanks to Covid-19 pandemic.
The 2019 African champion recorded four consecutive pinfall wins; 6-0 against Rhoda Shonde, 2-0 over Dami Ojo in just 56 seconds and 6-0 against Teme Deyei, before overcoming former African champion, Winnie Gofit of the Nigerian Army 6-0 in the final to claim gold, to the admiration of Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, who graced the grand finale of the tournament.
After her victory, Onyebuchi stated that the two-week camping organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in December for the wrestling team boosted her shape prior to the tournament, adding that she did not plan to win all her fights via pinfall.
“In December, our President (Daniel Igali) called us for two weeks camping. That one really helped a lot, because the kind of training I had during the camping, I can say it has been like three months back since I had that kind of training back home,” she said.
“Honestly, that was not my plan. But initially, anytime I am wrestling like this, I normally like to finish my fight in the first round because in second round, I don’t know what will happen. So, if I have my opportunity, I just take it.”
In the 53kg WW event, Mercy Adekuoroye, younger sister of Odunayo, caused a huge upset by defeating former African champion and favourite, Bose Samuel to claim gold.
Adekuoroye, a former cadet African champion, showed great determination and resilience to record a shock 7-3 win against her more illustrious and experienced opponent in the final.
In the only freestyle event on the final day, multiple African champion and Commonwealth silver-medalist, Amas Daniel made a mincemeat of his opponents in the 65kg weight category to grab gold in emphatic and ruthless fashion.
The Bayelsa State wrestler came from a point down in the first round of his first bout to thrash Fisayo Kolawole 12-1 and followed that up with two 10-0 technical superiority victories against Saliu Rasheed and Ebiere Bayefa to secure a spot in the final.
In the final, the captain of the men’s national team demolished Anthony Joseph 10-0 via technical superiority to win gold, and afterwards disclosed he has been working hard to maintain his form during the lockdown.
“As an elite athlete, you know you get to do the homework,” he said. “We’ve been having challenges with our training together for a while because of Covid-19, but as an individual, I was doing the homework at home; jogging, skipping, press ups, all those kind of little, little exercises.
“And so it is not much surprise to me (how I performed), because I know how I am for now. Though it is not good enough, I need to keep going. I think it wasn’t a bad outing.”
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