Sports
NWF Reflects On Champion Of Champions Tourney
President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), Hon. Daniel Igali, has described the just-concluded Baraza Champion of Champions wrestling tournament in Yenagoa, as ‘one of the best-organised’ in the country in recent times, while thanking sponsors, Baraza Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd, for sponsoring the competition and Bayelsa State Government for their support.
Over 50 wrestlers across the country participated in the 4-day tournament from 15th through 18th of this month, vying for medals in 11 Olympic weight classes in Women Wrestling and Freestyle events at the ultra-modern Dynamite Theatre of Wrestling Complex, in what is their first competition since the African Championships in Algiers in February, last year, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Baraza Champion of Champions wrestling competition was undoubtedly one of the best-organised competitions we’ve had,” the World and Olympic champion noted. “Though, it was small, the numbers of athletes that competed were not at the same level of athletes that we normally had competing in other tournaments, but it was probably one of the toughest tournaments.
“We had it spread over three days; four weight classes per day essentially, and so the referees were not over-burdened.
“We had new technology that we used at this tournament.
“The referees, officials and everyone here adjudged this to be one of the best tournaments we’ve ever held in Nigeria.
“At a personal level, I was very satisfied with what I saw. The athletes wrestled very well. Aside the fact that this was their first competition in 11 months, everything else appeared to be in sync.”
Speaking after the tournament, Igali, who is also the Commissioner for Youth and Sports in Bayelsa State, specially expressed gratitude to Baraza Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd, who bankrolled the tournament, as well as Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Hon. Abraham Ingobere, for their respective financial donations to the competition.
“I am extremely grateful to Baraza Multipurpose Co-operative Society Ltd for the sponsorship that we enjoyed from them,” Igali said.
“I am extremely grateful to the Governor and Government of Bayelsa State. The Governor (Sen. Douye Diri) personally coming to witness the event and present medals and also donating the sum of N2 million to support the competition.
“And I’m also extremely appreciative of the Speaker of the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, Hon. Abraham Ingobere, who also came in his capacity as Speaker and represented the House of Assembly, and also donated the sum of N500, 000 to the competition.
“The support we received from everyone was invaluable and we hope this competition will be one that we can continue to stage in Bayelsa annually.”
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