Sports
Eugene City Wins Hosting Right
Eugene has defended its
role in winning the right to host the 2021 World Championships.
The American city, linked to sportswear firm Nike, was given the event by the IAAF without a bidding process, a decision being investigated in France.
Gothenburg, which missed out, described the process as “bad ethics”.
But Eugene said it “adhered to all ethical and legal standards for organising, presenting and advocating for our bid, according to IAAF rules”.
IAAF president and former vice-president Lord Coe severed his links to Nike after questions over his role in the decision.
But in a statement, Eugene said it had submitted identical bids for the 2019 and 2021 World Championships, losing out to Doha in 2019.
It added: “The decision to award the 2021 World Championships to Eugene was made by the IAAF Council in a vote of 23-1.”
French officials are already investigating corruption allegations involving former IAAF president, Lamine Diack, with Coe quitting the Nike payroll two days after a BBC story suggested he had held talks with Diack and Nike about the awarding of the 2021 event.
Coe, who was reportedly paid £100,000 a year by Nike, said at the time that he “did not lobby anyone” over Eugene’s bid, but simply “encouraged them to re-enter another bidding cycle as they had a strong bid”.
Gothenburg bid chief, Bjorn Erikkson, said awarding the World Championships to Eugene had made him “really upset and for very good reasons”.
He told Tidesports source World Service: “What happened is bad ethics at least and definitely not professional.
“In the worst of cases it maybe also criminal, if somebody were there influencing the process, and that’s a question that I really want a good answer to.”
The former police officer also said he was not sure if Gothenburg would re-enter the bidding process, should it be re-opened.
“It’s up to the Gothenburg people, they don’t want to answer that question until they know why the last procedure was so unacceptable,” he told Tidesports source.
“If you are going to make business with these people you wish to know if they are professional, honest and serious, otherwise maybe you don’t want to do business at all.”
Coe said that awarding a World Championships without a bidding process “was not without precedence” – the 2007 World Championships in Osaka was one such occasion.
But Erikkson described that as “nonsense”.
He added: “If you behave idiotically and unacceptably is it better if you do it twice rather than once? Secondly there are no arguments for doing this, because we who are engaged in the sport wished to have a transparent process, to do it in disguise is not acceptable.”
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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