Sports
NSF: ‘COVID-19’s Effects Won’t Derail My Team’
Secretary of Rivers State Special Sports Association, Tekena Lulu- Poku, has said that the effect of COVID-19 Virus will not affect his team at the forthcoming National Sports Festival (NSF), tagged EDO “2020”scheduled to hold in Edo State.
Lulu-Poku disclosed this yesterday, during an exclusive interview with Tidesports, in Port Harcourt.
According to him, though the virus came and put everything on hold, his athletes had prepared adequately, saying that, technical and physical preparations were put in place to fortify the team ahead of the fiesta. This happened before the lockdown was announced to curb the spread of the virus.
“ It is true that the virus came with serious crisis,but the preparation we have made so far, still remains. There is no doubt that the athletes are still in shape and physically fit for the competition”, Tekena Lulu- Poku said.
The scribe noted that athletes were also training individually, during the crisis period to keep fit and as well prepare themselves further against hurdles associated with the competition.
“With this level of readiness, l can comfortably say that the athletes are set for the competition and would do well at the NSF, when the chips are down,” Lulu- Poku said.
He said the association has already screened and picked athletes to represent the state at the EDO 2020 Festival, saying that the body would make do with the list of athletes on ground.
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.
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