Sports
Groom Young Athletes, Gora Tasks Sports Administrators
Elias Gora, a retired sports administrator says gro-oming young athletes is necessary for the country to regain its top position in sports in the comity of nations.
Gora, a former Secretary General, Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) said this when he spoke with newsmen in Lagos, yesterday.
“Often time sports administrators tend to ignore the aspect of grooming athletes. We have said it times without number, deliberate thoughts and action need to be taken.
“Since the likes of Blessing Okagbare, tell me one athlete that is as formidable as she was when she was younger, this is what happens when we fail to train, dearth of professional athletes.
“Before Coronavirus came, check our performances in London and Rio de Janeiro, we honestly can’t keep hoping on God for miracles without putting in the hard work.
“Now with the pandemic, I honestly don’t know what to expect in 2021 Tokyo; it is only the wrestling federation and taekwondo that I hear of their training programmes, that have been consistent,” he said.
Gora, who was Nigeria’s Chef de’ Mission at the 2010 New Delhi Commonwealth Games said that the best outing the country ever had at the Olympics was in Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
“Till tomorrow our best performance was during the Atlanta Games and Sydney, since then what have we got to show for our participation at the Olympics.
“Look at Canada and Australia, when their performance wasn’t at Par with their expectations; they went back to the drawing board and decided to focus on some sports; one of it is swimming and till tomorrow they rake in medals for their country in this events,’’ Gora said.
He said that sentiments and nepotism should be put aside in order to get out the best in terms of selection of athletes and coaches for the country.
“As long as we keep looking beyond, tribe, religion and what have you, I believe a lot will fall into place.
“Sport administrators should always bare it in mind that at the end of the day, result is all that matters,’’ 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