Sports
Rivers United Targeting Silverware, This Season -Coach
Rivers United Football Club of Port Harcourt is poised to lay its hands on at least one trophy in the 2020/2021 football season. This was the declaration of the technical head of the club, Stanley Eguma while fielding questions from newsmen at the Dapo Abiodun Cup competition at Ijebu Ode over the weekend.
Eguma, whose side emerged winners of the recently concluded Governor Wike Pre- season Football Tournament in Port Harcourt was reacting to his team’s comeback 2-1 victory over MFM FC in their second game at Ijebu Ode. He was happy that the goal conceded by his side against the run of play did not demoralise the team, rather, it gingered them to fight back and win. He went ahead to commend the team, describing them as showing champions’ stuff.
He stated that the focus of the team is to win some silverware at the end of the season, with the NPFL title, the Federation Cup and the CAF Confederation Cup titles as targets.
“ Our target is to win something in the league this season, both in the NPFL and the Confederation Cup. I know it is very possible if we work very hard, for now, we have started and we hope that we will do a lot of hard work to achieve our collective goal, which is winning either the NPFL or the confederation Cup title or both”, said Eguma.
Though the coach said that at the club, they rely more on team work and do not judge the players individually, he, however, stated that the acquisition of the duo of Ifeanyi Anaemena and Keeper Theophilus Afelokai would go a long way to buoy the team, especially, in the continent, where they have garnered experience playing for their former club, Enyimba International.
“All the players have done well, we rely more on team work not individual players, we don’t judge them on individual basis but as a team and we are trying to gel as a team. But Anaemena and Afelokai are good and experienced players, they are integral members of the team, they came from the same club and the more they play, the more they get used to the team. I hope that their cohesion to give us more balance in the defence, we expect to see what they are made of and can bring to the team in the continent”.
Rivers United will be on duty this weekend against the Futuro Kings FC of Equatorial Guinea in the preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup, which led them to withdraw from the Dapo Abiodun Cup at the weekend.
Eguma has promised not to underrate the opponents but to go to Equatorial Guinea and win in order to make the return leg a formality.
By: Gabriel Nwanetanya
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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