13042019 - KILLING FIELDS OF NORTH WEST:They killed my husband, our three children in my presence – Zamfara survivor

46—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 13, 2019
African junior Championships: Nigeria's
participation hangs in the balance
BY BEN EFE
Nigerian junior athletes have
been fasting and praying
for divine intervention as their trip
to Cote d' Ivoire for the African
Junior Championships billed to
start next week is going up in
smoke.
Unless some sort of succor
comes today, the athletes will
miss the competition after
suffering in camp for close to
three weeks. They even have to
beg to feed in their Ijebu-Ode
camp. On Thursday, the athletes
and coaches were seen in the open
praying for God's intervention.
“We have no hope of going to
Cote d' Ivoire, if something does
not turn up on Saturday,” said one
of the coaches tending to the
athletes.
“Things have been so bad and I
feel sorry for the athletes who
have been training and they are
so determined to participate in the
championships. They feel it is
their future that is at stake, and
they are even ready to forego their
allowances if they make it to
Abidjan.”
It was learned that the Athletics
Federation of Nigeria president,
Ibrahim Gusau was yet to visit the
camp. He only phoned in to plead
with the athletes to exercise some
patience even as he made no
promise of providing for the
athletes' participation in the
championships.
Speaking on the issue former
400m runner, Gadzama Wadzani
Tafida stated that it was quite
AJ Tennis Academy plans big for Nigeria
America based AJ Tennis
Academy has rolled out
plans aimed at the development
of tennis in Nigeria and other
African countries.
Speaking in Lagos at the
weekend, co-founder of AJ Tennis
Academy, Tolu Adeleye said the
appalling for up and coming
Nigerian athletes to be suffering
this kind of traumatic experience.
He called on the Sports Minister
to urgently intervene.
Afikpo in Ebonyi State will host the 9th annual
Chuma Anosike South East Cricket
tournament which has been fixed for April 25 to 28.
Six male teams, and four feamale teams
representing the four South East states will feature
in the tournament, being hosted for the first time by
Ebonyi state.
According to sponsor, Chuma Anosike, the host
state is allowed to feature two male teams.
“That is why we have six teams in the male
category. But Ebonyi could not present two female
teams and that is the reason we have only four teams
in the female category,” he said.
The University of Nigeria Nsuka that represented
Enugu state are the defending champions in the
plan would see to the construction
of a functional tennis
development centre in Nigeria
with state-of-the-art facilities. He
calls it Tennis Centre of
Excellence.
“Our goal at AJ Academy is to
build a world class academy in
Nigeria to teach the kids the three
Cs, which means Curiosity for the
world, Concern for the world and
the Confidence to effect change in
the world.”
Adeleye who was born in
America said their ambition was
to seek partnership with both
private individuals and corporate
bodies to make their dream come
true. “What we intend to do is to
build infrastructure for tennis,
train the kids, build in their minds
the ability to brace to the
challenges they would meet in
future, as some would want to
become professionals, while
some others may want to play and
go through their academics.”
He sais his Nigerian
background was the motivation
behind AJ Tennis Academy's
decision to come develop
Nigerian tennis. Said he, “Back
there in America the opportunities
are abound. But that is not the
same here in my country Nigeria.
Like my partner Justing always
say, talent is universal while
opportunities are limited. Thay is
why we are here to broaden those
opportunities right here in
Africa.”
•Tolu Adeleye
Cricket: Afikpo play host to Chuma Anosike Cup
male category while Anambra state are defending the title in
the female category.
Speaking at a pre-event press conference in Lagos, Anosike
said he was particularly pleased with the progress made by
the organisers as everything has been put in place to make it
a memorable event for the participating teams and spectators
alike. “The tournament will be played in a round-robin format
and the top two finishers automatically qualify for the final,”
he told journalists Wednesday.
“In spite of the prevailing economic challenges, we have
strived to ensure that all the resources needed for the
tournament are made available, and in keeping with tradition,
prizes will be awarded for outstanding performances in
various categories and cash gifts for the best teams in both
female and male categories,” Anosike explained.
The 2019 Athletics season
officially opened for
Nigerian athletes last weekend
with the staging of the Athletics
Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All-
Comers Meet held in Ijebu-Ode,
Ogun State.
The turnout of the home based
athletes was encouraging,
underlining the fact that athletes
are indeed hungry for
competition, and I am hoping that
the federation is spurred to
organize several competitions in
the build up to the African Games
holding in Morocco in August,
and the IAAF World
Championships in Doha in
September.
Although most of the times and
distances recorded at the Ijebu
meet weren’t overly fantastic – not
an unusual phenomenon for the
first competition of the season – I
am hoping that Nigerian athletes
will begin to churn out impressive
performances as the season
progresses because there is a lot
at stake.
I am also hopeful that our relay
teams begin to build on the
moderate successes of last year to
reclaim their dominance on the
continent once more, especially
the male teams, starting with the
4x100m team that won Silver at
the African Championships in
Asaba, and the 4x400m team that
clinched Bronze at the same
competition. Prior to Asaba 2018,
it had been at least four years
since a Nigerian male quartet had
won a medal of any colour.
Nigeria is likely to send a team
to the IAAF World Relays billed
to hold in Japan in May, and that
Let the season begin!
will serve as a litmus test to see
how prepared our relay teams are
for the challenges ahead. The
major focus for Team Nigeria in
2019 will be the African Games
(August 16th to 30th), so the
Ministry of Youth and Sports
needs to ensure that sports
federations step up their
preparations as a matter of
urgency, by funding the
participation of these athletes in
as many competitions as possible.
Nigeria topped the medals table
in Athletics at the last African
Games in Congo Brazzaville
despite losing two Gold medals in
the men and women’s Long Jump
events after Samson Idiata and
Chinazom Amadi subsequently
returned positive tests for doping.
Anti-doping officials were
present at last week’s competition
in Ijebu-Ode, and it is important
that they remain a permanent
feature in our competitions this
year to avoid situations where our
athletes test positive to banned
substances at international
competitions.
We stand a very good chance of
making our presence felt in
Morocco, although South Africa,
Ethiopia and Kenya will be
waiting to show the stuff they’re
made of. The African Games is
expected to be highly competitive
as top African stars will use the
competition to gauge their
readiness for the World
Championships which holds from
September 28th to October 6th.
Also, the qualification period for
the World Championships elapses
on September 6th – one week
after the African Games. So most
athletes that will participate at the
African Games will be aiming to
achieve the entry standards for
the World Championships, and
the standards are
pretty steep.
For instance, in
the 100m, men
are supposed to
clock a time of
10.10sec while
women are to
qualify for the
event with a
mark of 11.24sec.
Among the
present crop of
athletes we have,
only Ogho-
Oghene Egwero
(10.06sec) and
Divine Oduduru
(10.10sec) have
met this mark in
the course of their
careers. Egwero achieved this feat
in 2011 while Oduduru did his
last year.
Only three females have run
faster than 11.24sec in the last
seven years, and two of them are
retired, talking about Damola
Osayomi (10.99sec, 2011) and
Gloria Asumnu (11.13sec, 2012).
That leaves Blessing Okagbare-
Ighoteguonor as the last woman
standing in terms of consistently
running world class times in the
100m.
Male athletes are to qualify for
the 200m with a time of 20.40sec.
To put things into perspective, in
the history of running the 200m
in Nigeria, only 12 men have gone
faster, and only one of them –
Divine Oduduru, belongs to the
present generation, and he is
ranked the fourth fastest in
Nigeria’s history with his time of
20.13sec. Only Francis Obikwelu
(19.84sec), Daniel Effiong
(20.10sec) and Olapade Adeniken
(20.11sec) have gone faster than
Divine.
Based on the above statistics
which come across as scary, the
rising standards in the
qualification marks for
international championships only
point toward one things, and that
is the fact that we need to raise
our game as a nation if we intend
to make a headway in global
Athletics. Mind you, the entry
standards for the Tokyo 2020
Olympics have been released and
they are much steeper than that
of the World Championships. So
as the 2019 Athletics season takes
off, we must rise with the rest of
the world or be ready to go extinct.
The choice is ours!