Sports
Lagos Moves To Reclaim Top Spot At Sports Festival
Lagos State sports administrators and athletes say they will use the 17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt now postponed till June to reclaim their number one position at the national scene.
Basking in the euphoria of their successes at the zonal eliminations for the sports fiesta, they said that they were ready for the competition.
Although they have not moved into the final phase of camping, the officials and athletes training at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre, Yaba, said their 2010 performances was motivated by Governor Babatunde Fashola.
The Chairman of the Lagos State Sports Council, Agboola Dabiri, recalled that the state was pushed to the seventh positions in the 2006 and 2009 editions of the festival in Ogun and Kaduna states.
“This development has fired us up to initiate moves to come back to top other states.
“To achieve this, we started a number of grassroots talent hunt programmes and competitions to discover athletes for the state and ultimately for the nation.
“The government gave us its full backing financially and morally, while some individuals and NGOs joined the revival effort,” Agboola said.
Some of the activities sponsored by the government are the clinics for all the coaches in the different sports, the Sydney Asiodu Athletics Competition and the All Comers Athletics Meet.
Others are the Lagos Basketball Tournament for Secondary Schools, Karate Championships, the Lagos Speaker’s Cup Football Competition, The Governor’s Cup Football Competition and the State Sports Festival.
The rest are the Governors Cup International Squash Championships, the Monthly Saturday Boxing Show and the Inter-Local Government Councils Table tennis Championships.
In swimming, the Governors Special Adviser on Grassroots Sports Development, Wale Oladunjoye, sponsored the Lagos State Swimming Competition and the children of late Phil Ebosie sponsored the Phil Ebosie Memorial Swimming Competition.
The annual Asoju Oba Cup Table Tennis Championships sponsored by Sir Molade Okoya-Thomas and the Cowbell Para-soccer Competitions promoted by Promasidor Nigeria Ltd also held.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria also sponsored a basketball clinic with a promise that it would do the same for all the sports.
Agboola told newsmen that having undertaken these activities, the athletes were ready to improve on their zonal eliminations performances to win the festival.
“Gov. Babatunde Fashola is the brain behind the successes we achieved in 2010 and the only way we can reciprocate his gesture and efforts at sports development is by reclaiming the state’s lost glory.
“I urge the athletes to train well, be focused and ensure they win the sports fiesta,” he said.
In spite of these efforts, the swimming pool and the boxing gymnasium at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre still remain in deplorable state.
The contracts for their refurbishing were awarded but they have yet to be functional.
The sport’s authorities said that government would expedite action in reviving the facilities to ensure that the abundant talents in swimming and boxing would not defect to other states.
The council’s Head Coach, Kally Isaac-Dagogo also told newsmen that the technical department would ensure that athletes were given the best training for them to perform optimally.
Athletes who spoke with Tidesports were confident that the state would rule the sports festival because of their level of preparation and government’s welfare package.
Temitope Adesina, a basketball player said she was in good shape for the festival, adding that the basketball coach had engaged them in intensive training sessions.
“Although we are on course but the final phase of training for the festival should start in earnest,” she said.
Jide Omotayo, a table tennis player praised the government for its grassroots talent hunt programmes which, he said, had increased the state’s bank of athletes.
“I think Lagos has performed well in 2010. Our welfare remains top on their agenda and this will spur us into action,” Omotayo said.
Eniola Adejare, a swimmer scored the council’s performance low because the swimmers lacked competitions and the swimming pool in a deplorable state.
“We have lost our colleagues to other states because of the lack of competition and bad facilities.
“I think serious measures should be taken to arrest this defection of swimmers for us to have a successful outing at the National Sports Festival,” Adejare said.
Nigeria’s world record holder, Tobi Amusan, continued her impressive 2026 season by winning gold and setting a new meet record in the women’s 100 metres hurdles at the New Taipei Athletics Open in Taiwan on Saturday, Tidesports source reports.
Amusan crossed the line in 12.72 seconds despite running against a slight headwind of -0.3 metres per second, finishing well clear of Chinese Taipei’s Bo Ya Zhang, who took silver in 13.17 seconds.
The performance erased the previous meet record and underlined the 29-year-old’s consistency as one of the dominant forces in women’s hurdling on the international circuit.
The New Taipei victory adds to a string of strong outings this season for the Nigerian. Earlier in the campaign, Amusan claimed her first Diamond League win of the season in Rabat, Morocco, clocking 12.28 seconds to break her own meeting record of 12.45 seconds set in 2025.
That time equalled her season’s best, which she had also posted at the Xiamen Diamond League.
Before Rabat, Amusan had recorded a third-place finish in Shanghai with 12.41 seconds and a runner-up spot in Xiamen with 12.28 seconds, where she was edged by American hurdler Masai Russell.
The season has also included a continental triumph, with Amusan winning gold in the women’s 100 metres hurdles at the African Championships in Accra, helping Nigeria to its first gold medal of the competition.
Her 12.28-second performance remains among the fastest times globally this year and ranks as one of the finest of her distinguished career.
Only her world record of 12.12 seconds, set at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and the 12.24 seconds she clocked at the Meeting de Paris last year stand above it in her personal all-time list.
A three-time Diamond League champion, Amusan will be looking to reclaim the overall title this season while also preparing for the Diamond League finale and the Commonwealth Games later in the year.
4th
Super Falcons Must Improve- Coach Madugu
Super Falcons head coach Justin Madugu has offered an honest assessment of his side’s performance after Nigeria defeated Senegal 2-1 in an international friendly at the Remo Stars Sports Complex in Ikenne, admitting there is still considerable work ahead of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, Tidesports source reports.
Goals from Asisat Oshoala, who converted a first-half penalty, and Toni Payne gave Nigeria a commanding lead before Sokhna Nogaye’s long-range effort in the 86th minute reduced the deficit and set up a tense finish.
While the nine-time African champions secured the result and met their primary objective of assessing squad depth, Madugu acknowledged the performance was not without its shortcomings.
“It’s a good result, and naturally, when you play any game, you always want to win. This is a preparatory game, and the aim is to assess our readiness, test the strategies we want to execute in the competition, and give players the opportunity to showcase what they can do to provide us with more options,” Madugu told official54fx.
“These are the matches we use to identify which players are fully ready for the WAFCON. It was not a bad game for us, but as you know, there is always room for improvement. Yes, we did well, but we know there is still a lot of work to be done.”
The two sides meet again on Monday, June 8, in the second match of their friendly double-header as both nations continue their WAFCON preparations.
As Nigeria buries one of its legendary football heroes this weekend, the spirit of another late football hero of the same generation is being evoked.
As the body of late Henry Onyenmanze Nwosu, MON, is being committed to mother-earth on Saturday, June 6, in Naze, near Owerri, on
Sunday, June 7, 2026, the first in a two-part series of activities in remembrance of late Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, MFR, the one referred to as ‘the Big Boss’ by the football faithful, will take place in Lagos at the 10th Memorial Lecture organised yearly by a Foundation established by his friends and family at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos.
Also, on July 28, 2026, exactly a day to the date (July 29) that Stephen Keshi died 10 years ago in 2016, his contributions as a sports diplomat within Nigeria’s strategic foreign affairs will be showcased and acknowledged. His name will be inscribed in gold letters on ‘the NIIA Sports Diplomacy Wall of Fame’ in everlasting memory of the great Nigerian football hero and patriot.
His name will be an addition to those of 69 other sporting heroes from Nigeria’s history that have already been found deserving of a place on famed Wall.
The ‘NIIA Sports Diplomacy Wall of Fame’ is a national monument established by an agency of the federal government of Nigeria, the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, to immortalize Nigerians that are known to have made major contributions to Nigeria’s international politics and diplomacy objectives through sports.
On July 28th 2026, it will be 3 years since the edifice was erected within the premises of NIIA in Lagos sponsored by Dr.Allen Onyema and his AirPeace Airline. It is an environment of water fountains, a beautiful garden and a Black marbled-wall on which the names of Nigerian sports heroes considered deserving are inscribed.
The existing list will now be extended to include the name of former Nigerian Green Eagles Captain and national team Coach, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, CON. He has been considered worthy, and his contributions identified, justified and approved by the NIIA.
The extension of the space on the wall to accommodate his name, plus the small ceremony to be done in his honour, will be courtesy of Dr. Allen Onyema and AirPeace Airline.
Stephen Keshi played and captained the Nigerian national football team. He also coached and managed the National team of Nigeria to an African Cup victory, qualified and took another African national team, Togo, to the FIFA World Cup, personally opened the way and assisted a whole generation of Nigerian and other African football players in the transition to professional ranks in Europe.
Meanwhile, inside the sports diplomacy department of the NIIA, a few other Nigerians athletes are being considered for a place on the wall in the very near future. They include world record breaker and holder,Tobi Amusan; first and only female Olympic Gold medalist, Chioma Ajunwa, and the Atlanta ‘96 ‘Dream Team’ and Olympic Gold medalists.
The honours list is not based on sports achievements only, but on impact in the international diplomatic and political space in conformity with Nigeria’s foreign affairs agenda and objectives!
I remember the great ‘Stefan’, as I called Keshi, very fondly. He called me ‘Segunda Fero’!
Former national 400m hurdles champion, Olympian Henry Amike, has called for greater investment in athletics, athletes’ welfare, training and competitions to restore Nigeria’s competitiveness in track and field events.
Amike who spoke in Abuja Thursday said the pace of development in Nigerian athletics has fallen short of expectations despite the achievements recorded by previous generations of athletes.
“We expected that after we left the scene, people would take over immediately, but it has taken almost 40 years before things like this are coming up. We are not happy with what we have seen in Nigerian track and field,” he said.
He said that their technical expertise and experience could contribute significantly to policy formulation and institutional reforms within the sector.
Amike, one of Nigeria’s most accomplished track and field athletes, represented the country at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.
He competed in the 400 metres hurdles and 4×400 metres relay events.
The Olympian’s most notable international achievement came at the 1987 World Championships in Rome, where he became the first Nigerian athlete to qualify for the final of the men’s 400m hurdles. His personal best time of 48.50 seconds stood as Nigeria’s national record for 35 years before it was broken in 2022.
Amike also won medals at continental competitions and was widely regarded as one of Africa’s leading hurdlers during the 1980s, contributing to Nigeria’s growing profile in international athletics.
Amike, who served as a legislative assistant to the speaker of the House of Representatives, has confirmed his intention to contest the Lagos West Senatorial District seat in 2027.
According to him, his political agenda will focus on youth empowerment, sports development, education and broader socio-economic issues affecting residents of the senatorial district.
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