Sports
Delta Expresses Readiness To Host NYG
The Chairman, Delta State Sports Commission, Tonobok Okowa,who doubles as the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has set the ball rolling ahead of the 7th National Youth Games.
In his opening speech at the joint technical meeting of delegates from across the country, he assured the directors of sports of a hitch- free competition, adding that there will be nothing to worry about.
The sports administrator said preparations are in top gear for the games scheduled to take place in Asaba.
The event billed for September 7 to 17,2023 will feature about 30 sports which target is discovering and nurturing talented athletes for future stardom.
The sports lined up for the tournament of under 15s include athletics, boxing, basketball,beach volleyball, canoeing, football, handball, hockey, table tennis, karate and wrestling.
Others include para athletics, chess, squash, scrabble, swimming, judo, weightlifting, golf, rugby and tennis.
Proposed venues to be used are the Government House squash court, Ibori Golf Course, Westend Secondary School, Asaba, the Cynotaph, mainbowl, indoor halls, swimming pool and other facilities in the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba.
Other venues are the hockey pitch at Okpanam, Admiralty University, Ibusa and Lander Brothers Anchorage, Asaba.
The national youth games has served as a platform for identifying young athletes since its inception.
The maiden edition took place in Abuja and Kwara State has hosted the last five editions.
However, for the 7th edition, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports decided to award the hosting rights to Delta State.
The last edition of the games featured a total of 37 sport events, with Delta emerging overall champion, amassing a total of 104 medals, comprising 60 gold, 26 silver and 28 bronze.
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