Sports
Winning Triple Jump Excites Gold Medalist
A triple jump gold medallist at the ongoing 3rd and 14th Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Championships, Onaara Obamuwagun, says it feds great winning her first medal for Nigeria on Thursday.
Obamuwagun told Tidesports source from Cote d’Ivoire on telephone that “winning a gold medal for my country for the first time made me feel great’’.
“After all the stress of travelling all the way from Nigeria by bus and even getting harrassed at the various border points, it eagerly caused my spirit to want to beat all those I competed with.
“Winning the medal also made me proud of myself and I am sure that my family will equally be proud of me just as well,’’ she said.
Obamuwagun leapt a personal best of 12.78m which was more than her season’s best of 12.40m that qualified her for the competition.
South Africa’s Gontse Morake finished in the second position while Dorothy Kavhumbura of Zimbabwe placed third in the women’s triple jump event of the U-20 category.
Obamuwagun, an Arena Athletics Club athlete, who competed in the U-20 category, said that she got frightened because her personal coach was not with her at her first international assignment.
She however, said that her assigned coached encouraged and brought out the best in her.
“Before competing, I was like oh my God, my coach is not here with me, because he knows me better, he knows how to allay my fears, so I was really bothered about that.
“But fortunately for me, I met the coach that was put in charge to train me and he really helped, gave me the courage and I was no longer afraid.
“t was then that I knew I was going to win but all thanks to God,’’ she said.
As at Day two of the championships, Nigeria recorded five gold and seven bronze medals.
About 36 countries are participating in the continental championships which began on April 16, to end tomorrow.
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