Sports
Nigerian Athletes Receive Training Grants, Allowances
The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, has disclosed that Nigeria’s local and foreign-based athletes have received training grants and allowances.
This, the Minister said, was a testament to the Ministry’s concerns for the welfare of the country’s athletes.
Enoh, tweeting as #OwanEnoh, noted yesterday via his X.com handle, that this would be the “first time ever” that home-based athletes representing the country would receive training grants.
His tweets read, “In ensuring that all local, foreign and Olympics allowances are paid to all Team Nigeria athletes, I had another interactive session with the athletes at the games village in Paris as follow up on their welfare.
“Home-based athletes complained of never receiving training grants, as this has only been a privilege for their foreign-based counterparts representing the country.
“We have ensured for the first time ever, home-based athletes representing the country also receive training grants. Foreign and home-based athletes have now received training grants in addition to all other allowances already paid.”
The Minister stated that all athletes who represent the country “deserve training grants, as they all put in efforts and passion to represent the country. They are all deserving.
“There’s a lot of excitement at the games village and the athletes are greatly enthused for podium appearances.”
Nigerian athlete, Favour Ofili, qualified on Monday night for the final of the women’s 200 metres at the Olympic Games at the Stade de France in Paris, France.
She ran a season-best 22.05 seconds to place behind new women’s 100m champion, Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia in heat 1 of the semi-finals.
She joins seven others in yesterday evening’s final of the event, ranking third among the crowd.
In other sports, Nigerian wrestler, Blessing Oborududu, secured her place in the semi-finals of the women’s 68kg wrestling event at the Games as the world-ranked number 6 dominated her Canadian opponent, Linda Morais, with an 8-2 victory in the quarter-final match.
Also, the nation’s women’s senior basketball team, D’Tigress made it to the quarter-final of the event after being drawn against the United States at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
D’Tigress made history by securing Nigeria’s first-ever berth in the last eight of the Olympics basketball tournament after their impressive 79-70 victory over Canada in their final group game on Sunday.
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