Sports
Imo Heartland Wins South-East Basketball Tourney
Imo Heartland Basketball Club, Owerri over the weekend emerged champions of the inaugural edition of the South-East Basketball Invitational Championships
The team from the Eastern Heartland State defeating the host team Coalcity Basketball club of Enugu by 43-42 at the indoor Sports Hall of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium.
Despite the heavy downpour which affected the finals with the licking roof recently claimed to be rehabilitated by the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports, FMYS, the final game lived up to expectations as both teams displayed aggression, energy, passion, and scintillating basketball skills to the admiration and excitement of the fans, supporters, and lovers of the slam-and-dunk game.
The 4-day competition which dunked off on the 8th of June 2022, and organised by the SouthEast Basketball Association, had in attendance the five states that made up the Zone, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo competing for the star prize.
Addressing the players from his base in the United States, a board member of the South East Basketball Association Kelechi Anuna, a silver medalist at the 2017 Afrobasket, reiterated that both the active players and veterans in the diaspora whose origin is from the zone are committed to taking the game to greater heights, reassuring that the crisis rocking the country’s federation will not deter their focus and Vision
“We are condemned to the goals and aspiration of the talents that abound the South East and will continue to do our best in the repositioning of the zone notwithstanding the challenges that we are faced with the recent being the ban placed on international competitions by the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development” he said.
The visitors’ Heartland started the competition on a brighter note, edged past team Ebonyi in the first game, lost two straight games to Abia and Enugu respectively, and scaled through to the semifinal to defeat Abia by 35-33.
While the Coalcity kings (Enugu) led by light and co basking in the euphoria of the home support dominated and outclassed all their opponents’ enroute to the final but lost one game to Anambra also by a slim margin of 24-25.
Similarly, Team Abia one of the exciting sides in this year’s edition of the competition, possessed quality, teamwork, ball distribution, skills, and physicality but unfortunately lost in the final quarter of the semifinal to Imo.
Anambra another side that showed signs of Un-coordination in their offensive and defensive play, likewise in their re-bounce failed to utilise their opportunities but still manage to play while team Ebonyi were the whipping boys of the tournament, losing four straight games.
In her words, the Coach of Team Imo, Ogbonnaya Chikadibia while expressing happiness with the performance of the team and also winning the competition in her debut coaching experience, stated that she was tensed up all through the 4th quarter until the last few seconds of the game.
According to the secretary of the South East Basketball association Osondu Ngwude, the train move to another state in the next few months as the Board of SEBA has concluded plans to develop the game 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