Sports
Niger Flickers Win 3rd Hockey Super League Title
Defending champions Niger Flickers of Minna, last Saturday, in Abuja, emerged champions of the male competition of the 2017 Hockey Super League, making it three consecutive wins.
Tidessports source gathered that Niger Flickers, winners in 2015 and 2016, were once again winners with a 1-0 defeat of Police Machine of Kaduna.
In this final match played at the National Stadium’s astro-turf pitch, the defending champions did not find it easy however in this very cagey affair.
Niger Flickers came into the final with a perfect winning record having won all their six matches in the league phase, while Police Machine won three, drew two and lost one.
The only defeat for Police Machine, who came second behind Niger Flickers in the league phase, was a humiliating 4-0 defeat against the defending champions.
Police Machine this time around showed persistence, as well as fortitude, grit and resoluteness, in charging at the defending champions and holding them back.
Niger Flickers, however, maintained their calm in a nervy and tight contest, before scoring through a powerful field goal by Umar Danladi in the 42nd minute.
According to our source, the classification match for third and fourth places played earlier, Kada Stars of Kaduna, defeated Yobe Desert Rollers of Damaturu 3-1 to place third.
Also, in the classification match for fifth and sixth places played early in the day, Union Bank of Lagos beat IGP Flickers of Kaduna 2-1 to finish fifth.
Riv Kings of Port Harcourt finished seventh and last in the seven-team competition, after only one point from one draw in six matches and scoring two goals and conceding 13.
In the individual awards at the competition, the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award (male category) went to Adamu Kolo of Niger Flickers.
Kada Queens’ Folarin Adeyemo, was the MVP of the female category.
Niger Flickers’ Benard Wilson, won the highest goal scorer award with seven goals, while Bomoya Idirigo of Kada Stars was the female’s highest goal scorer with five goals.
Baba Abdulkadir of Niger Flickers and Komi Kumi of Kada Stars scooped the best goalkeeper awards in the male and female categories, after conceding only a goal each.
The Most Improved Player awards of the male and female categories went to Kada Stars’ Victor Kish and Itua Adagboyin of Plateau Queens respectively.
The youngest player awards in the male and female categories were won by Peter John of Kada Stars and Ruth Linus of Kada Queens respectively.
Also, the fair play awards were given to Kada Stars (male) and Benue Amazons (female) respectively.
Meanwhile, the final match and closing ceremony were graced by dignitaries such as the Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, and the Governor of Niger State Sani Bello.
They helped to hand out the prizes to the winners, alongside Abdul Ningi, the re-elected President of the Nigeria Hockey Federation, among others.
The league had begun on July 8 with 14 teams, seven each in the male and female categories, with the El-Kanemi Flickers of Maiduguri notable absentees.
Sports
Bundesliga: Kane Scores Hat-Trick As Bayern End Winless Streak
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Sports
Dosu Survives Ghastly Accident, Again
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Sports
Sports Development Going Down In Nigeria – Ex-International
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
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