Sports
Sports Enthusiast Tasks Govt On Sports Dev
A United States based Nigerian, Mr Chuks Akpamgbo has urged the Enugu State Government to give adequate attention to school sports to produce future talents for the country.
The sports enthusiast made the call in Enugu on Monday during the 2019 Inter-House Sports of the Girls Secondary School, Abakpa Nike in Enugu East Local Government Area of the state.
Akpamgbo, who was the chairman of the occasion, expressed satisfaction with the performance of the students in the sports competition, saying that the sky would be their limit if their talents were harnessed.
“The students performances were wonderful and I think the sky will be their limit because the students have talents and I hope they will go places.
“As for the school, they need government support to sustain this programme to lift the administrators, teachers and the students morale,” he said.
Akpamgbo was optimistic that the new administrators led by Gov Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi would do more about school sports.
In her remarks, the Sports Director, Enugu State Post Primary School Management Board (PPSMB), Mrs Martina Ugwu said that the board believed in the totality of child development and not only in academics.
“Today is a special day for Girls Secondary School Abakpa Nike and the girls were very active.
“The reason for the inter-house sports is to catch them young and besides, some students are good academically while some are good in sports so that is the essence of this event.
“We have talented students in various schools and we believe in totality of child development not only academics.
“This is sports at the grassroots and from here the best will represent their schools at the local government council and from there to the state, till they reach international level,” she said.
Earlier in her address, the Principal of the school, Mrs Francisca Eze said that the inter-house sports was an annual event.
Eze commended the state Governor, Ugwuanyi for giving sports a prominent place in the state educational programme of secondary schools.
“Inter-House Sports is one of the activities in the school system that promotes healthy rivalry among the staff and students,” she said.
The highlight of the inter-house sports were field and track event, marching, cultural dance, boxing exhibition bout and other competitions among invited schools.
At the end of the event, Blue House was adjudged the overall winner of the Inter-House Sports by the organisers followed by the Purple House.
Yellow House was adjudged the third best, Green House finished fourth while White and Pink House finished fifth and sixth respectively. (NAN)
Thierry Henry has called for the return of the away goals rule in the aftermath of the bombastic Champions League semi-final between Inter Milan and Barcelona.
The visitors at the Estadio Olimpic Lluis Companys came within milimeters of clinching the first leg of the final-four clash after former Arsenal star Henrikh Mkhitaryan netted late in the second-half.
But the linesman was quick to raise his flag, and semi-automated offside ruled out what would have been a thrilling conclusion to the high-octane 3-3 draw.
The hosts came from behind twice to share the spoils, chasing Inter Milan from the first minute of the game after Marcus Thuram stunned the Barcelona faithful into silence with his neatly flicked goal.
Denzel Dumfries doubled Inter’s lead 20 minutes later, but it took just three more for the Blaugrana to finally get on the scoresheet courtesy of a moment of magic from teenage starlet Lamine Yamal.
Ferran Torres drew Barcelona level ahead of the break, but Lamal was forced to play catch-up again in the second-half after Dumfries scored his second.
In light of the impressive effort from Inter, Henry wondered if the team should have got more from the fixture ahead of the second-leg at the San Siro.
‘I know it’s been like that for a very time, and we have to accept it,’ Henry said of the removal of the away goals rule, ‘But off air I was talking to Jamie (Carragher), and I was like, “how can you score three goals away from home and you don’t have an advantage?”
‘Away goals for me were massive, you score three goals away and you still don’t have an advantage 0-0 at home,’ Henry shrugged.
UEFA took the decision to scrap the rule which gave goals scored away from home the ability to act as a tiebreaker in the case of level scorelines ahead of the 2021-22 season.
Current FIFA Chief of Global Football Development Arsene Wenger claimed during his time as Arsenal manager in 2015 that the away goals rule ‘encouraged the team at home not to attack’ and that ‘the weight of the away goal (was) too big today’.
Without the rules, the tie at San Siro will go to extra time and penalties to decide which teams books their spot in the Champions League final.
But based on Wednesday evening’s performance, Henry seemed to give Inter a fighting chance against the newly minted Copa del Rey champions.
The 2025 London Marathon set a new world record for the number of finishers despite hot conditions on Sunday for its 45th edition.
A total of 56,640 runners crossed the finish line at the end of the 26.2-mile route, Guinness World Records has confirmed.
The number surpassed the previous record of 55,646 set by the New York Marathon in November.
Hugh Brasher, chief executive of London Marathon Events, said he hoped the high number of finishers inspired people to apply for the 2026 race ballot.
“The London Marathon was already the most popular in terms of ballot entries, with 840,318 people applying for the 2025 race,” he said.
“It is also the world’s largest annual one-day fundraising event with more than £1.3bn raised for charity since 1981.”
The number of people applying for the ballot to enter this year’s race broke the world record of 578,304 for the 2024 edition.
Of UK applicants 49% were female, while there was a 105% increase in applications from people aged between 20-29.
Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa surged to victory in the elite women’s race in a world record for a women’s only field, while Kenya’s Sebastian Sawe triumphed in the men’s event.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has said that his side will have to do something special in Paris if they are to reach the Champions League final following defeat in their semi-final first leg.
Ousmane Dembele’s early strike at the Emirates leaves the Gunners needing to overturn a one-goal deficit against Paris St-Germain in the second leg at the Parc des Princes next week.
It was an ultimately frustrating night for Arsenal at Emirates Stadium, who failed to convert any of their five shots on target.
“If you want to win the Champions League final, you have to do something special. We’re going to have to do something special in Paris to be there,” Arteta said.
PSG dominated the opening 20 minutes of the match and, while the hosts grew into the game, they continued to be frustrated by the French side’s solid defence, failing to score in a home Champions League match for the first time since February 2016.
“We have a lot of chances to be in that final. As I repeat myself, you have to do something special in the competition to have the right to be in the final. And the time to do it is going to be in Paris,” said Arteta.
Arsenal have not reached the final since 2005-06 while PSG are hunting a first Champions League trophy.
As they did against Liverpool and Aston Villa earlier in the campaign, Luis Enrique’s side relied on Italian keeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma to keep them out of trouble.
The 26-year-old kept a clean sheet and made five saves – including important stops to deny Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard in one-on-one situations.
“At the end, we have two of our front players one v one with Donnarumma. If they scored the goal it is different. He made the saves, like he did against Liverpool and Villa, and that’s the difference in the Champions League,” Arteta said.
But Enrique says the shot-stopper was just doing his job.
“That’s the work of a goalkeeper, no? Save the team, they work every day for that. In a semi-final, you need all the players,” the Spaniard said.