Sports
Paralympics: Team Nigeria Grabs Table Tennis Bronze
Team Nigeria lost a game on Wednesday but gained a medal to the bargain at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, bringing their total Games’ haul to seven medals.
Tidesports source reports that Nigeria lost 2-0 to Australia in the semi-finals of the men’s team Class 9 to 10 event of the table tennis competition.
In the doubles game, Tajudeen Agunbiade and Alabi Olufemi lost 3-1 to Australian pair Ma Lin and Joel Coughlan.
After losing the first set 12-10, the Nigerian team fought back to win 11-8, only to lose 12-10 again in the third set.
They however failed to keep up the momentum by losing the fourth set 11-5 for a 3-1 major score line.
Ma went on to beat Agunbiade 3-2 in the opening singles, coming from two sets down (8-11, 9-11) to win the final three sets 11-3, 11-9, 11-8.
The loss meant Australia went 2-0 up to make the third game, the singles involving Olufemi and Coughlan, unnecessary in this best-of-three fixture.
Australia will go on to face China today in the final, after the Chinese beat Ukraine 2-0 in the other semi-final fixture.
Tidesports source reports that Nigeria now has three gold, one silver and three bronze medals from the Games, with just four days to the end of competition on Sunday.
Nigeria’s involvement in competition at the Games continues today at the Olympic Stadium.
That is when Eucharia Iyiazi joins 15 others to do battle for the three available medals in the women’s shot put F57 event.
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