Sports
AFN Targets New Talents As Okowa Awards Scholarships
Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) President, Tonobok Okowa, says the sixth National Youth Games holding in Ilorin will serve as fresh talent recruitment ground for the federation.
Defending champions, Team Delta, arrived Ilorin with a contingent of over 750 athletes and officials.
Okowa, who is the chairman of Delta State Sport’s Commission, told Newsmen that the athletes were ready to defend their title.
A praise and worship session was held for the team on Saturday evening at the Stephen Keshi Stadium, Asaba, where the Secretary to the state government, Patrick Ukah, who represented Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, urged the athletes to do everything possible to defend their title.
He said: “As soon as athletics event starts, I will shift my attention to track and field because the AFN will use the National Youth Games to recruit athletes who will step into the shoes of some ageing ones. As for Team Delta, we have worked very hard for these games, and I am sure we will emerge victorious again. The state government has given us the support we need, and we are very grateful to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the entire executive council.”
Okowa revealed that 11 of the young athletes discovered at the 2019 edition of the National Youth Games were given academic scholarship by the state government to combine their education with sports in the United States last year, adding that four others have just joined them.
He said, “when we discover young athletes, we keep them and nurture them,” Okowa stated.
Meanwhile, organisers of the youth games have assured participants of a hitch-free event, saying the minor hitches recorded on the opening day have been taken care of.
Team Edo contingent, yesterday, complained that they were left outside the hostels provided for the teams, adding that there were no official to attend to them.
Team Edo leader, Sabina Amiemenoghena Chikere, said she had to make alternative private hostel accommodation for the women athletes and questioned why the LOC will fix a tournament of this magnitude when students of the University of Ilorin were still writing their examinations.
However, an official of the LOC, who pleaded anonymity, said that the hiccup experienced by Edo is a minute problem that has been sorted out, adding that such problems usually occur on arrival days in multi-sport events.
“Most schools are in session. It makes hostel accommodation for many states difficult. But we have moved the affected states to polytechnic hostels around the state capital. Edo is not the only state affected”, he said.
“We are satisfied with the level of preparedness of University of Ilorin ahead of the competition and members of the Sports Directors’ Forum have also expressed their delight at the arrangements in place for the games.”
Also, the LOC has announced a slight adjustment to the time line of the competition with the opening ceremony initially scheduled for Wednesday now moved to Thursday.
The Sports Writers Association of Nigeria ( SWAN) Rivers State Chapter has set up five standing working committees on Tuesday, in its general congress.
At the playoff held at the Lagos Lawn Tennis Club, Onikan, the team of Canice Abua, Michael Emmanuel, Daniel Adeleye, and Abubakar Yusuf was majestic as they restored Nigeria’s hope in a sport that once gave the country so much joy.
Speaking after the final game, Nigeria Tennis Federation (NTF) President, Victor Ochei, said the Davis Cup feat is the stepping stone to better days in the sport, adding that the federation has set up programmes that will help the budding talents across the country play at the same level as their counterparts in other tennis-developed countries.
Ochei said: “The whole aim of having this new board is to lift the sport to the level we used to be. I tell you, tennis is taking a new shape in Nigeria. We are putting everything and anything to make that work happen.”
Ochei said that the NTF has looked at sponsorships and how to get the emerging players compete at the same level with their peers elsewhere, adding that the federation is working on organising local competitions and helping the players to compete in international championships.
“We believe that with what we are doing now, sponsors will come to us to organise new competitions. But beyond that, there’s a strategic growth development plan, a 10-year development plan, which the board is working on.
“The programme will ensure that we catch them young. This is because we believe that to create champions, we must start grooming them early. The champions you are seeing today were those groomed yesterday.”
“The process of building new champions will include building the coaches, the players, the infrastructure and sensitising the parents so that we can start catching them as young as age five to six.
“By the time that we groom them through 10 years of training, at age 15, 16, you will see fantastic professional players.”
To achieve the federation’s plans, Ochei admits that the NTF needs a lot of investment, adding that the board is working at realising the funds quietly and tenaciously.
The NTF president acknowledged the contributions of former international stars like Nduka Odizor and Sadiq Abdullahi to the bid to rejuvenate Nigerian tennis, adding that NTF is open to collaborating with former players who know what it takes to play at the highest level of the sport.
He said, “Nduka Odizor is around as one of our VIP personalities. He has been psyching up the boys in the battle with Uzbekistan. He will not enter the court to play, but his mere presence is enough motivation to the boys, who will want to be like him in the future.
“You see, the type of support the Odizors, the Imonities and the Abdullahis got in their time is no longer there, but we are revamping it with the support of our stakeholders in the Diaspora.
“It will appear to take us some time, but I can tell you that the Diaspora support is massive.”
In its bid to get good results in this year’s Commonwealth Games, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has disbursed N200 million as training grants to 26 athletes.
The 2026 Commonwealth Games will be held in Glasgow, Scotland.
The NSC stated that the grants were disbursed through its Elite and Podium Board, noting that N200 million was allocated to select top-performing athletes.
The beneficiaries are both foreign-based and home-based, the NSC said, adding that it will cater for their training and preparation expenses.
According to the NSC, the recipients span several sports, including athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, and para-sports, in line with the Commission’s mandate to prioritise athletes’ welfare and high-performance development.
The Commission added that the disbursement follows the establishment of the Elite and Podium Board, created to implement a scientific and institutionalised support system aimed at sustaining peak performances by Nigerian athletes at major international competitions.
NSC Director General, Bukola Olopade, said the Commission, under the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was established to restore confidence and provide renewed hope for Nigerian sportsmen and women by placing strong emphasis on athlete welfare.
“The training grants disbursed to 26 athletes across different sports followed a careful and professional selection process by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board. This is our way of reassuring our athletes that their welfare remains our utmost priority,” he said.
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