Sports
Team Nigeria Wins Maiden African Canoe Race
Team Nigeria has emerged overall winner of the maiden African Admiral Porbeni Canoe Race championships at the Jabi Boat Club in Abuja, Nigeria.
The championship began penultimate Thursday and ended last Sunday with no fewer than 100 athletes from five African countries including, Ghana, Senegal, Sao Tome and Principe, Togo and the host, Nigeria, taking part in the four-day event.
Team Nigeria amassed a total of 21 medals, including 14 Gold, six silver and one bronze to emerge the overall winners of the event.
Sao Tome and Principe came second with 14 medals, including one gold, six silver and seven bronze. Senegal finished third with 12 medals, including one gold, three silver, and eight bronze.
Nigeria’s Ayomide Bello finished as the overall best female athlete, winning three gold medals in all the three events she competed for including the 1000m C1 women, 200m C1 women and 500m C1 women. Bello was ranked 13th in the 2019 World Championships in Hungary and also won 4 gold medals from four events as a rower at the Admiral Porbeni Boat Race in 2021.
Yinlayefa Godhelp, Nigeria’s youngest athlete also won gold in two events: the 1000m K1 women and the 500m K1 women.
Godhelp, who was found only a year ago, established herself as a young phenomenon by winning the 500-metre C1 race at the National Sports Festival.
She went on to represent Nigeria at the second Africa Beach Games in Tunisia in 2023, finishing fourth in her first international competition.
Team Nigeria went home with a 3,000 dollars prize money, while Sao Tome and Principe pocketed 2,000 dollars with Senegal taking 1,000 dollars.
Team Nigeria’s Captain, Moses Michael, expressed joy at the team’s victory, adding that it wasn’t an easy feat even though everyone had high expectations for the team.
In preparation for the team for the Olympics qualifiers in November and Paris 2024, Michael stressed on the need to open training camp early for the athletes, adding that the Olympics was already around the corner.
Micheal appealed to the Federal Government to assist the team because November is around the corner and Olympics training is expected to commence immediately. Some athletes in other countries have started preparations for the Olympics a year ahead of the event.
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.
-
Featured5 days agoWASSCE: RSG Distributes Science Materials To Secondary Schools
-
News5 days ago
RSG Reaffirms Commitment To Quality Education
-
Niger Delta5 days agoFubara Charges Graduands On Discipline, Professionalism … As IAUE Holds 44th Convoc
-
News3 hours agoFG To Unveil Radio Station For Adult Education
-
News3 hours agoAfenifere Raises Alarm Over Attacks On Oyo Schools …Says Yorubaland Now Under Siege
-
News3 hours agoFubara, Wife Hail Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Initiative …As Over 6,800 Families Benefit From Largesse In Rivers
-
News3 hours agoIsaac Boro Memorial: N’Delta Still Bleeds For Justice -MOSIEND
-
News2 hours agoRSG Commends Anglican Church’s Contributions To State’s Dev