Sports
AAG: Nigeria Sustains Dominance in Women Sprints …Moves To 2nd Position
Nigeria underlined her dominance of African women sprints on Monday in Maputo, Mozambique as three of her athletes swept the medals in the 100 metres at the 10th All-Africa Games.
Tidesports gathered that the trio of Damola Osayemi, Blessing Okagbare and Gloria Asume clinched the medals at stake to restate the country’s position in the event.
Osayemi ran the race in 10.9 seconds to win the gold medal, and dethroned her compatriot and African champion, Okagbare.
The U.S.-based Okagbare followed closely with a time of 11.01 seconds for the silver, while Asume took the bronze with a time of 11.26 seconds.
The men’s 100 metres race, however, had Amr Seoud of Egypt winning the gold in 10.2 seconds while Ben Youssef of Cote d’Ivoire finished second with a time of 10.28 seconds.
Nigeria’s Obinna Metu was right behind him to take the bronze medal with 10.29 seconds.
Doreen Amata of Nigeria also won gold in high jump after leaping over 1.88 metres, while her compatriot Agnes Osasuwa took the silver with a jump of 1.80 metres.
Nigeria’s Tosin Oke also won gold in the triple jump with a distance of 16.65 metres.
In the 110 metres hurdles, Nigeria’s Samuel Okon and Salim Nurudeen also won the silver and bronze medals respectively while Algeria’s Hadji Lasib took the gold.
Meanwhile, journalists covering the 10th All Africa Games here in Maputo have not been having it easy as organisers continue to demonstrate a very high level of incompetence.
From discrepancies in results of events to the non-release of daily medal table, the confusion makes it almost impossible for journalists to have a good picture of the performances of various contingents.
This has made some adventurous news reporters to send home unauthenticated medal tables, based on conjectures.
Till the time of filing in this report, the final result of the men’s100 meters final was still shrouded in controversy as two results emerged yesterday after the race. While the first version had Egypt’s Amir Ibrahim winning the gold, Nigeria’s Oghene Egwero and compatriot Obinna Metu in second and third positions respectively, the latest result reconfirmed Egypt’s Amir Ibrahin Seoud gold medal with a time of 10.20 secs and the silver medal to Ben Yusuf of Ivory Coast (10.28 secs) while Obinna Metu(10.29 secs) retained the bronze.
It could be recalled that Nigeria’s Iworima Otonye, competing in the Women’s Tripple Jump event, had her gold medal nullified after the Confederation of African Athletics had faulted the conduct of the event by “incompetent technical officials.” A faulty jump was said to have earned her the gold and the medal was withdrawn when other countries protested. Nigeria appealed and got a judgment ordering a repeat of the final event.
However, Track and Field has lifted Nigeria to the second position, at the conclusion of events last night. Athletics had garnered up to 7 gold medals. Nigeria won the 4X100m relay in the men and women events shortly after Seun Adigun won the 100m Hurdles.
“It is good that Track and Field is doing well but I know that we could have done better,” Athletics
Federation boss, Solomon Ogba said. The quartet of Agnes Osazuwa, Gloria Asumo, Demola Osayemi and Blessing Okagbare won gold for Nigeria in the 4×100 meters relay. They dusted their opponents in a time of 43 secs to bag gold.
Nigeria’s impressive showing in athletics continued with yet another gold medal in the men’s 4×100 relay as the quartet of Benjamin Adukwu, Peter Emelieze, Obinna Metu won the gold. Gloria Deborah also won gold in the partially sighted 200 meters event.
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.
But his call for the board is, allegedly, not going down well within the top hierarchy of the NSC.
Shuaibu, a former Edo State deputy governor, who made the appeal yesterday, during a budget defence session at the National Assembly in Abuja, stated that constituting the NSC’s 17-man board would play a critical role in revitalising the sports sector.
According to him, a properly constituted NSC board would provide strategic direction and institutional stability necessary for long-term sports development.
He also renewed his calls for increased funding to reposition the National Institute of Sports (NIS) and advance sports development in Nigeria.
Shuaibu reaffirmed the institute’s commitment to fulfilling its mandate of training manpower for the sports ecosystem and promoting grassroots sports development, stressing that inadequate funding remains a major constraint.
“Our mandate is to train manpower for the sports ecosystem and promote sports from the grassroots,” he said. “But we cannot achieve this without adequate government funding. We need a budget that reflects our vision and mission to improve sports in Nigeria,” he stated.
Earlier, the Chairman of the House Committee on Sports, Kabiru Amadu, decried the poor funding of the institute, describing it as a critical pillar in national sports development.
Amadu emphasised the need for increased budgetary allocation to enable the NIS discharge its responsibilities effectively and pledged the committee’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to improve its funding for optimal performance.
Meanwhile, a top official of the National Sports Commission (NSC), has described Shuaibu’s call for proper constitution of the body as ‘unbelievable.’
The official refused to comment further when The Guardian urged him to clarify his statement on Wednesday.
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