Sports
Ex-boxing Scribe Laments Nigeria’s Poor Outing In India
Nigeria’s poor outing in boxing at the ongoing 29th Commonwealth Games in New Delhi is due to poor preparation by the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF), a sports administrator said.
In an interview with Tidesports source in Lagos, Trigo Egbegi, a former Secretary of the Nigeria Boxing Board of Control (NBB of C), said the NBF board appeared ignorant about how to develop amateur boxing.
Egbegi noted that the failure of any of the five boxers in the competition to advance to the crucial stages of the tournament in New Delhi confirmed the poor state of the sport in Nigeria.
He said the poor performance of the boxing team reflected the acrimony in the federation, which led to the dropping of the federation’s head coach, Obisia Nwakpa.
Nwakpa was neither involved in the boxers’ preparation nor accompanied the team to the games.
“Our preparation for the games was zero, the boxers we took to the games did not have the requisite experience for a competition of the magnitude of the Commonwealth Games,” Egbegi said.
“There was no activity lined up locally or internationally to fine-tune the boxers; if such had been done, the boxers would have gained the necessary experience and exposure,” he said.
Egbegi said if the boxers had taken part in international competitions prior to the games, they would have tested their abilities against foreign opponents.
He expressed concern over the decline of the sport in the country, noting that Nigeria recorded its best outing in boxing at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992.
It would be recalled that Nigeria’s Richard Igbinegbu and David Izonritei won silver medals in the heavyweight and super heavyweight categories respectively at the Barcelona Games.
Duncan Dokiwari won Nigeria’s last Olympics medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, where he clinched a bronze medal in the super heavyweight category.
“I wonder what the people at the NBF are doing about the declining state of boxing.
“It is either a case of lack of provision for training tours or somebody is sitting on funds meant for such purpose,” Egbegi added.
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
