Sports
Rivers Intensifies Preparation For Gov Diri’s Wrestling Championship
As the Wrestling Championship scheduled to hold in Bayelsa State, tagged, Gov Maiden Open Wrestling Championship draws close, team Rivers Wrestlers have continued to intensify preparations for the task ahead.
The Championship is expected to hold from April 27th to 3 May this year.
This was revealed to Tidesports yesterday, by head coach of the Rivers State Wrestling Association, Eli Oyomunede.
According to him, the preparation is on going and the athletes are doing well, saying that he has competent athletes who are ready to deliver when the chips are down.
“The wrestlers are high-spirited and determined too to win medals for the state when the competition gets under way. Right now, we have intensified our preparations to ensure a favourable outing at the championship,” he said.
However, coach Oyomunede lamented that he feared not having the needed support from the state sports ministry at the right time, noting that, if that happened, it would definitely affect the team and as would kill the morale of the athletes.
” Yes, preparations are going well and the wrestlers are poised, but we would need all the support and motivation we can get to be there and put up our best performance. I pray the sports ministry does its part, hopefully,” he added.
It would be recalled that the competition was earlier fixed for December last year and later shifted to first quarter ot this year to enable the organisers put up a hitch- free, successful and memorable event.
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.