Sports
Contractors Deliver Swimming Pool To FG
Swimmers in a competition
Contractors handling the
renovation of the swimming pool at the National Stadium, Lagos yesterday commended the commitment of Government toward ensuring that the pool was revived.
Idris Jamiu, Senior Engineer, Jonac Engineering Company, made the commendation in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
The pool, which was built in 1972 to host the 2nd All Africa Games, had been out of use, since 1999 and was subsequently approved for rehabilitation by the then Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, in 2013.
The project, however, abandoned until January, when the incumbent Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalong, during an inspection of the stadium, ordered the completion of the project before the end of the first quarter of the year.
Jamiu said: “Government’s commitment and our will as a credible engineering company is responsible for this achievement.
“We were given a target to deliver the job before the end of the first quarter of the year; as you can see we achieved it.
“At the moment the lavatories are ready, the engines for pumping of water, installed to aid the supply and drainage in the diving and swimming sections are in perfect conditions.
“We have yet to mount the storage tanks at the left side of the facility but that will be done in a few days time,” he said
According to the engineer, the pool is ready for use and will be inaugurated in due course.
He said that the success of the project was made possible within a short duration because of government’s commitment at ensuring that the pool was upgraded to international standards.
Jamiu lauded the media for beaming their searchlight on the renovation of the pool, adding that doing this for other structures in the National Stadium would ensure revitalisation of sporting activities.
“If we have so much of checks on other sporting facilities like we had from the press during the entire process of renovation, it will give a boost to renovation of other facilities across the country,” he said.
Tidesports observed that the swimming pool and its diving section, the dressing rooms; lavatories, lighting, water filters and the underground water filling machines are ready for use.
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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