Sports
GPHCDA Interacts With Stakeholders Through Golf
The Greater Port Harcourt
City Development Authority, (GPHCDA) at the weekend staged the maiden edition of Greater Port Harcourt City Golf Tournament at the golf section of Port Harcourt Club, 1928.
It was a one day competition that involved both amateurs and professionals, who had various ranges of prizes and award to contest for.
At the end of the day, Samuel Amadi emerged the overall winner with a net score of 65 beating Pastor Moses Abrakasa to the second position on net score of 66. John Eze placed third, tied on 66 but lost to Abrakasa on countback.
Okey Chike and Wale Odotola were recognised and rewarded after finishing tops of the Greater Port Harcourt Team with a net score of 77 and 79, respectively.
In the professional category, which had a total prize money of N500,000, Evans Anyanwu finished tops with a gross score of 71, Jude Emmanuel second with 72 and F. Obe third on 73 gross.
Other categories of winners include the seniors, longest drive men and ladies, nearest to the pin, men and ladies and best net scores, men and ladies.
Speaking earlier in an interview, the Administrator of Greater Port Harcourt City Development Authority, Dame Aleruchi Cookey who performed the ceremonial tee-off of the tournament said that the golf tourney was part of the Authority’s promotional strategies aimed at driving and advertising the new city development.
According to her, the tournanment with the slogan, Re-awakening the Garden City, was to interact with golfers who are stakeholders in the Golf estate being developed at the new city and leet them know what is going on. She also said that it was a one-on-one engagement.
According to the Administrator, the estate and golf course being developed by ‘ARM’ is located directly opposite the Port Harcourt International Airport will be a place to live, work and play.
The estate, she said would occupy 200 hectares of land and have an 18 hole golf course.
Already, according to officers of ‘ARM’, the development of the first phase of the course, which would deliver a playable nine-hole course by April next year, has started while the 18 holes would be ready by August 2015. The entire golf estate which would have about 750 units of houses is a three-year project.
Also speaking during the prize presentation ceremony, Captain of the Port Harcourt Club’s golf section, Adokiye Ikpoki expressed happiness with the Greater Port Harcourt’s developmental strides, especially, in provision of sports facilities, particularly a golf course, which would be the sixth in Rivers State.
He said that golf is synonymous with real estate and described the intended golf estate and course as wise investments.
Ikpoki said that the section was excited to partner the GPHCDA.
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