Sports
Under-Performing Sunshine Flickers Blame Astro Turf
The performance of Sunshine Flickers at the IEI National Hockey League finals was hampered by their unfamiliarity with the astro turf, the team’s assistant coach Biodun Akinyemi has said.
The inaugural edition of the league which held on the astro turfs of the Abuja National Stadium’s Hockey Complex was concluded at the weekend.
The finals featured six teams/clubs in the women pool, after the Bayelsa Flickers and Lagos state failed to turn up, and eight clubs in the men’s category.
The Akure-based Sunshine Flickers garnered only three points from five matches after three draws and two losses, scoring two goals and conceding six to place seventh and out of title contention.
Akinyemi blamed his team’s performance on the fact that his players were unfamiliar with the astro-turf.
“We came third at the Southern Conference held in Lagos some weeks ago, and that shows that we are good too.
“But we played then on a synthetic turf, and over here we are playing on an astro-turf, which we are unfamiliar with,’’ he told newsmen.
Akinyemi said that apart from the turf, his players had been used to playing on hard ground and could not have mastered the use of the astro-turf in just a few days.
“This is a faster pitch than what we have been used to, and we were affected by the pitch.
“We couldn’t have done better than this, because we couldn’t prepare for this finals as we would have loved to, due to lack of funds,’’ he said.
The coach said his team could not get the needed funds to prepare and travel for the finals in Abuja.
“We didn’t get the money we asked for, and we managed from the little we have left over from the money used in going for the Lagos competition,’’ he said.
Akinyemi, however, said his team was not giving up the fight for now.
“It is normal that not all teams that have come here will win all their matches, but I am confident that we will get better because we are good and we have been improving with each game.
“I can assure you that there will be changes in our subsequent outings we want to strive to do better and avoid relegation. I am positive about that because we can do it,’’ he said.
Two of the clubs in the men’s pool of the IEI National Premier Hockey League were relegated to the lower league at the end of the finals.
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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