Sports
Four Athletes Join Cadet Tennis Team
The Nigeria Table Tennis
Federation has named four athletes into its cadet team.
The athletes are Ibrahim Umar, Michael Obayomi, Muibat Bello and Zainab Surmer.
The NTTF’s Secretary, Chinedu Ezealah-Ogundare, told newsmen that no fewer than 16 athletes had been discovered in the ongoing Toyin Okenla-Ojeaga U-17 Table Tennis Championships.
It will be recalled that the cadet team is made up of winners from last year’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) sponsored ‘’Nigeria Hopes Week Intensive Training Programme for grassroots talents.
The competition, which served-off on March 24 is to be concluded on March 29 at the Molade Thomas-Okoya Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos.
“16 players have been discovered and their accurate ages were also gotten in the process.
“They will have to fight hard to make it into the cadet team because the team is for serious minded people.’’
Ezealah-Ogundare noted that the federation had mapped out plans to run clinics to engage the athletes during their long vacation.
“The federation would cater for both their feeding and accommodation to make everything easy for them.’’
She, however, appealed to parents to support their children to enable them achieve their true potential in sports.
“Let us all join hands together to help these young ones achieve their heart’s desires.
“It is only when their hearts are at peace that they can achieve anything, nothing can be achieved when the heart is in fear,” she said.
The winners in last year’s event are Abiodun Adekunle of Angus Memorial Senior Secondary School, Igbobi, who won the boys’ trophy, while Zainab Akande of King Ado, High School, Isale Eko, won the girls’ trophy.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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