Sports
NYG: Director Lauds Team Rivers
Head of Team Rivers delegation of the just- concluded 3rd edition of National Youth Games (NYG) held in Ilorin the capital city of Kwara state, Joshua J. kio expressed joy over the performance of his athletes.
He stated that the state government would start to plan to ensure that they arrive earlier in next edition of the youth competition.
Kio, who is also the director of sports in the state and permanent secretary said this at the weekend in an interview with sports journalists , in Ilorin, saying that they have learnt their mistakes and it would not repeat in subsequent editions.
According to him, the athletes made the state proud in spite their late arrival to the games, they were able to clinch medals.
“I must commend my athletes for their impressive performance, most especially the Basketball team that played five games within 24 hours of their arrival and won silver, also the cyclists who arrived and went straight to competition venue and won two gold medals,” Kio said.
Team Rivers contingent arrived Ilorin, venue of the games five days after the commencement of the competition, consequently missed most of the events they hoped to clinch golden medals.
Meanwhile, the two gold medalists in Team Rivers, Bright Emmanuel and Alice Miebaka have expressed sadness as they missed two of their events that they would have won gold and silver medals.
They however thanked the state government for making it possible for them to attend the competition and attributed their success to their coaches.
Team Rivers finished 16th position on the medal table, 30 states attended the youth games. Kwara will still host the games after two years.
Tonye Orabere
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.