Sports
Paralympics: Ex-Coach Urges FG To Reward Athletes Bounteously
As the Rio 2016
Paralympics ended yesterday in Brazil, Nigerians expecting the arrival of Team Nigeria to the Games have urged the Federal Government to welcome the athletes bounteously.
The Tidesports source reports that the team had won a total of 12 medals, including eight gold, two silver and two bronze to place 16th on the medals log.
Nigeria had at the London 2012 Games secured 13 medals, including six gold, five silver and two bronze.
A former national coach of Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF), Andrew Ekanem, says the team deserves a bounteous reception because they achieved what the able-bodied athletes could not.
Ekanem told newsmen yesterday in Lagos that the country’s athletes deserved to be celebrated on their arrival from the Games and appreciated for the medals haul.
“Their performance simply creditable, these are a set of athletes living with physical disabilities but committed their time and energy to training in spite of their challenges.
“Now they have invested their time and energy to bring glory to the nation, therefore it is necessary to in return celebrate and reward them very well.
“They won the medals without any of them getting involved in any drug issue, thereby upholding the integrity of Nigeria by all standards,’’ the former coach said.
He said the reward for the Para-athletes would set a good platform to encourage more physically challenged to develop their individual skills in available sports.
“Everybody is waiting to see how the government will treat these athletes who have globally shown to the world that Nigeria has abundant talents.
“Good reward for the athletes will attract more physically challenged persons to build careers in Para-sports to contribute their quota to Nigeria’s sport development,’’ Ekanem said.
According to him, there are a large number of such persons shying away from getting into sports because of being addressed as disabled.
Team Nigeria took part in Powerlifting, Para-table tennis and Para-athletics at the Games which held from September 5 to September 18 in Brazil.
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