Sports
Kaduna Promises Special Scholarship Packages For Talented Athletes
The Kaduna State Government will provide talented athletes identified at the ongoing sixth edition of the State Sports Festival with special scholarship packages, an official disclosed yesterday in Kaduna.
The state’s Deputy Governor, Hadiza Balarabe, made the disclosure while declaring open the festival at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium.
She said the state government would, in view of the importance attached to sports, provide incentives such as scholarship packages to students who distinguished themselves in events.
“To provide these incentives, the state has instituted special scholarship packages for those who excel in sports,” Balarabe declared.
She said the state government was aware of the importance of sports in promoting the socio-economic development of states.
The deputy governor pointed out that this knowledge led to the need to give the state’s Sports Development Ministry the necessary support to ensure the festival was held annually.
She said the state government was hopeful the festival would enable young athletes in the state to find national and international space to exhibit their talents.
“Sports generally enhance students’ academic performance. Youths involved in sports are also most likely not to engage in drugs and they do not drop out of school.
“Sports unites people, and it is as such a driving force that makes us to begin to provide sports facilities in all public schools,’’ Balarabe said.
She charged the chairmen of all local governments in the state to support events at the grass roots to ensure an all-round development.
“Also, let me call on corporate organisations and public-spirited individuals to come and partner with us in ensuring this sports festival is sustained annually,” she said.
Tidesports source reports that over 2,000 athletes and officials from the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state are featuring in the one-week event.
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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