Sports
Boxers Lament Poor Camping Conditions
Following their disappointing exit from the final set of Paris 2024 Olympic Games boxing qualifiers in Bangkok, Thailand, some Nigerian boxers have attributed their poor performance to inadequate preparations.Nigeria’s boxing team, comprising Patricia Mbata, Zainab Adeshina, Blessing Oraekwe and Ifeanyi Onyekwere, failed to win any of the 51 available slots for the Paris Olympics.
Our correspondent reached out to the quartet and got responses from Adeshina, Oraekwe and Onyekwere about the conditions leading up to the qualifiers.
“The preparation was very bad. It was just one week camp, with a lot of stress in it. After training, we would need to go do police report, medical report and a lot of other things that cut into our time for rest. It takes us weeks to do that normally. There was no good food in camp, no allowances, and no rest,” Onyekwere lamented.
“Good training and rest make a boxer or an athlete perform well. Just like the African Games in Ghana, we were given good training and time to rest, that’s why we came out overall best team in Ghana with eight gold and two silver.”
Adeshina, who competed in the women’s 50kg category and reached the quarter-finals, echoed Onyekwere’s sentiments, adding that the team lacked adequate training equipment,
Onyekwere, the sole male boxer in the Nigerian contingent, who crashed out after a point decision defeat against Dmytro Lovchynskyi of Ukraine in the men’s +92kg (super-heavyweight) round of 32, expressed his frustration over the lack of proper preparation.
“There was no proper preparation and then we did not have adequate equipment for training for this qualifier at all.”
Oraekwe, who competed in the women’s 66kg category and suffered a unanimous points (0-5) loss to Armenian Ani Hovsepyan in the round of 32, highlighted the impact of the late call-up to camp on their overall performance.
“To me, there was no proper arrangement and we didn’t have enough time to rest. They called the camp late and it affected our performance,” Oraekwe 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