Sports
NCF U-17 Zonal Qualifiers, Girls Finals Begin, Today
The girls finals for the National Under 17 cricket zonal qualifier, which kicked off 15 January, 2021 to select cricketers that will represent the country at the African Cricket Championsip commences today in Benin City.
This was disclosed by the Head Coach, Rivers State Cricket Association, Tonye Timinadi, during an interview with Tidesports yesterday.
According to him, the finals for girls category starts today and ends 31 of this month. while the boys finals is scheduled to kick off 4th and last through 7th February, this year.
“The best players from the various teams would be selected to form a zonal team in the finals,” Timinadi added.
The boys zonal qualification series across 6 zones ended Sunday with Kaduna State emerging champions in the North West, as they beat Jigawa, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kano to maintain 100 percent record in that zone.
Edo State again proved to be too strong in the South-South zone after beating Akwa Ibom State in the final match to leave them unscratched throughout the series.
The North Central region experienced the dominance of the ‘Old Lady’, Kwara State as team FCT, Kogi and Plateau all fell under the onslaught of what could be described as an all round display of proper cricket.
The usual suspects in the South West continued their fierce rivalry for supremacy. In the end, Lagos State took their pound of flesh in the final against Ogun to reign supreme and finish champions in the zone.
Also, in the South East, Anambra retains champions status and bragging rights after beating Abia, Enugu, Imo and Ebonyi States respectively.
Earlier in the Week, Gombe State in the North East already had a playoff game to complete the zonal qualification series in the boys category.
The climax of the event was the donation of kit bags to all the states in the South-South region by the Zonal representative and Vice President of the Federation, Mr Uyi Akpata.
Coach Timinadi said the gesture was following the backdrop of other support system over the years, to ensure the continuous growth and development of the sport in the zone.
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