Sports
Eguma Blames Weather For Dolphins’ Failure
Dolphins coach Stanley Eguma picked on the weather as the reason for his side’s elimination from the CAF Champions League on Sunday in Cameroon.
The Nigeria premier league champions were beaten 1-0 by Coton Sport but were eliminated on the away goals rule after a 2-1 first leg win.
“It was a good game. The two teams played very well especially in the second half,” Eguma offered. “In the first half the weather affected my boys but in the second we had series of scoring chances but failed to put them away. My boys did well. They tried,” Eguma said.
While the weather may have been a factor, the events in the days leading up to the first leg would have played a more crucial role.
Owed an accumulation of match bonuses totaling 29 and going all the way back to last season, Dolphins players embarked on a strike action and refused to train for two days before that game.
The result was a laborious win that allowed the Cameroonian team a telling away goal.
Taking that slippery 2-1 advantage to the second leg was always a risk, and it took CotonSport just 20 minutes to erase it. Jacques Haman rising above the Dolphins defence to score.
It was the same Haman who got the away goal in Port Harcourt two weeks ago.
With a midfield controlled by Congolese international Makaya Baya, Dolphins were at the receiving end for the rest of the first half as the defence of Kennedy Chinwo, Victor Ezuruike, Festus Austin and Victor Babayaro were the busiest on the pitch.
Time and time again, Gaya easily went past his marker, Seidu Abuu who was slow and out of sorts but Haman’s lackadaisical attitude in front of goal ensured he either blasted wide or shot into the hands of Sunday Rotimi in Dolphins goal.
Dolphins had their moments in the first half but the strike force of Ifeanyi Egwim and Emma Nwachi never seemed like scoring.
Cletus Itodo, getting a rare start for the team since joining from Sunshine Stars was played out of position on the right wing and cut a forlorn figure until he was mercifully substituted.
With the Garoua sun going down, Dolphins found renewed zeal and emerged from their shell to launch raids that left the home fans on edge of their seats for the last thirty minutes.
A succession of missed opportunities was to be their undoing. Nwachi, Omoh Ojabu and Kennedy Chinwo all had chances to get the one, decisive goal that Dolphins needed.
All failed to do so, and Dolphins will be left to contemplate life on the scrap heap of continental football.
By contrast, Sunshine Stars showed remarkable resilience to overturn a 4-1 deficit, handing Recreativo Libolo a 3-0 pasting to level their tie 4-4 on aggregate after a 1-4 first leg reverse.
The Akure team will now meet South Africa’s Black Leopards.
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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