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NWF President, Dr Ibrahim Abdul Highlights Paris 2024 Olympics Gains …Thumbs up Lawal, Eze and Nigerian sports stakeholders

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The President, Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF), Dr Ibrahim Abdul has stressed that important lessons have been gleaned from the country’s unimpressive outing at the just concluded Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Dr. Abdul also used the medium to thumb up the valiant efforts of his two Weightlifters: Rafiatu Folashade Lawal and Joy Ogbonne Eze who gave a very good account of themselves in their various weight classes but narrowly missed medals.
Lawal, competing in the women’s 59kg, came 5th overall after putting up a spectacular show including lifting a personal best.
The 2023 Africa Games champion lifted a combined 230kg to place 5th. She had a lift of 100kg in snatch and pulled 130kg in clean and jerk.
She was just 11kg away from the gold medalist, Luo Shifang of China who clinched the revered accolade with 241kg lift total and barely 5kg off the medals zone with Charron Maude of Canada winning the silver with a total of 235kg while 30 years Taiwanese Amis weightlifter, Kuo Hsing-Chun won Bronze with 235kg total.
For Eze who was the 2019 and  2023 Africa Games champion, her 101kg lift in snatch and 131kg lift in clean & jerk with a total of 231kg, were not enough to land her in the medals zone as she ended her campaign 7th overall in her debut Olympic Games.
Reacting to the performance of both Weightlifters, the NWF President, Dr Ibrahim Abdul praised the effort and resilience of both lifters whom he said performed commendably in their debut Olympics.
The NWF President said that with better preparations and more exposure ahead of future competitions, the two lifters and their contemporaries have what it takes to excel in the sport.
He thanked the President of the country, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the release of funds for the Olympic Games and he also commended the hard work of the Sports Ministry headed by Senator John Enoh and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) with Engineer Habu Gumel in charge.
“It was not the Olympic Games we dreamt of but I must commend my Weightlifters for their commendable outing in Paris. Rafiatu Lawal was very close to securing medal while Joy Eze also tried her best,” Dr Abdul told the NWF Media.
“What we have learnt from the Olympics is that we have to prepare better and expose our lifters to more international competitions for them to regularly compete with the best. It was an opener for us as a Federation and we shall work on it ahead of future competitions.
“I must specially thank the President of the country, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for his love for sports and the release of funds for the Olympics. The Sports Ministry with Senator John Enoh in full charge did a good job too and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) headed by Engineer Habu Gumel ensured all sports were properly coordinated during the games.”
Dr Abdul assures that the NWF will soon do a postmortem of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and proffer a way forward to ensure the country Weightlifters get the best of attention for upcoming competitions.
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Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak

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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.

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Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again

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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.

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Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International

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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

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