Sports
17th NSF: Ebonyi Not Worried By Athletes’ Defection
Sports authorities in Ebonyi State have said that they were not worried by the defection of their athletes to other states for next month’s National Sports Festival scheduled for Port Harcourt.
More than 10 athletes representing the state in key sports have been poached by other states in the past few months.
Emmanuel Utobo, the Acting Director of Sports in the state, told newsmen in Abakaliki that the development was not a threat to Ebonyi’s medal hopes at the sports fiesta.
“Those athletes have the right to do so. They feel that other states can provide them with better opportunities; therefore we allowed them to leave as we could not meet their demands.
“There is no way Ebonyi can compete with the likes of Lagos, Edo, Rivers and Delta in terms of athletes’ welfare because we do not have the type of resources they have,” he said.
Utobo said athletes who opted to remain with the state had shown signs that they would excel at the sports festival.
“Our Kung Fu athletes won one gold and two bronze medals at the Lagos Open Championship last November.
“Also in the same month, our wrestlers won the overall position in the Greco-Roman category of the Open Wrestling Championship in Bayelsa.
“The state’s athletes won the male and female football and handball events of the National Sports Festival zonal elimination series held in November in Enugu,’’ he noted.
Utobo said that to ensure the state performed better at the competition than it did at “Kaduna 2009’’, the sports council had toured the grass roots where it discovered new talents.
“These athletes are being groomed with the older ones to ensure that the state is ready for the festival when it commences next month,’’ he said.
The acting director said that no date had been fixed for the kick-off of the final phase of camping for the athletes but noted that they were training on their own.
“We call on individuals and organisations to complement the government’s efforts by sponsoring the athletes to the competition because adequate preparation and participation are capital intensive,’’ he said.
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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