The Nation Newspaper

Tag: All African Games

  • Balogun shifts focus to All African Games

    Nigeria’s fast-rising wrestling sensation, Sunmisola Balogun has turned her attention to the forthcoming 2019 All Africa Games after winning gold medal at the just concluded Senior African Wrestling Championship held in Tunisia.

    The Ondo state born athlete defeated Amina Ibrahim of Egypt, Amel Hammiche of Algeria in the first and second round, defeated Nour Jeljeli of Tunisia in the semi-final, before defeating Yvette Zie of Burkina Faso in the final of the 65kg to claim gold medal in her first senior category fight outside Nigeria.

    In a chat with NationSport, Balogun, who won gold medals at the 2018 Africa Youth Games (AYG) in Algiers and the 2018 National Sports Festival in Abuja, said she went to Tunisia determined to win a medal.

    The 17-year-old is now looking forward to make the country proud at the 12th All African Games scheduled to take place in Rabat, Morocco from 19 August to 31 August 2019.

    “When I was preparing for the African Wrestling Championship in Tunisia, I never thought I will compete at the senior category. But when I heard that I am going to compete at the Senior 65kg, I was a little bit panic. However, I said to myself ‘yes the time has come to prove myself that I can do it’. A lot of people encouraged me, especially my team mates, the Ondo State wrestlers. I promised myself to give out all my best, even more that 100 percent to perform well. My final against Yvette Zie of Burkina Faso was a very tough one and I won by 1-0. I never gave up one one point in about six minute on mat. I returned the glory to God almighty and those who still believe in me. I never dreamed about success, I worked for it. We just have to rest a little before resuming reaining ahead of other competitions. You know the All African Games is fast approaching too.”

    Balogun thanked the Nigeria Wrestling Federation for supporting and encouraging the young wrestlers.

    “I want to express my appreciation to the federation especially my coach, Purity Akuh who has continued to push us to success. He kept encouraging us during competitions by saying we have come here not to play but put in our best by more than 100 percent,” Balogun told NationSport.

  • AAG: Sack notice affected Falcons – Danjuma

    AAG: Sack notice affected Falcons – Danjuma

    Super Falcons Coach, Chris Danjuma, has admitted the news of his sack regardless of how the team perform at the women’s football event of the All Africa Games, had an adverse effect on the girls.

    The Nigeria Football Federation president, Amaju Pinnick, had said a foreign coach would be employed for team in order to improve its performance, africanFootball.com reports.

    The news scuttled the euphoria in the Super Falcons camp in Congo after starting the competition with an impressive 5-1 victory over hosts Congo in the opening match.

    “I am human. Even though we are professionals, we still have emotions. We come out every day to give our best to make a name for ourselves and make our country proud. But while we are yet on this we hear the news back home and whether you like it or not these things affect us because we are human. We did know anymore what to think because we were under pressure,” he told africanFootball.com.

  • Dream Team wins AAG bronze medal

    Dream Team wins AAG bronze medal

    Nigeria’s Dream Team VI on Thursday defeated hosts Congo 5-3 on penalties to win the bronze medal at the 2015 All Africa Games.

    The game ended 0-0 at the end of regulation time, africanFootball.com reports.

    Goalkeeper Emmanuel Daniel was the hero when he saved Sagesse Babele’s penalty kick, while Etor Daniel, Sodiq Atanda, Kingsley Sokari, Erhun Obanor and Christian Pyagbara all scored from the penalty spot for Nigeria.

    Mustapha Abdullahi had a chance to put Nigeria ahead in the 32nd minute when he had a one-on-one with the Congolese goalkeeper, but passed the ball to Junior Ajayi, whose effort was wide off target.

     

  • AAG: Team Nigeria targets more medals in powerlifting

    Team Nigeria is banking on the powerlifting event to shore up its medal haul at the ongoing 2015 African Games in Congo Brazzaville.

    Egypt currently leads the medals table at the multi-sports tournament.

    According to the powerlifting coach, Feyisetan Are, the team is eyeing 11 gold medals from the 16 events at stake.

    So far, Team Nigeria has won 63 medals – 17 gold, 25 silver and 21 bronze medals to maintain fourth place on the medals table.

    On Monday, Tosin Oke and Onyegbule Lovina won two gold medals in the athletics events for Team Nigeria.

    In the men’s triple jump event, Oke jumped 17.00metre to claim gold, while his compatriot, Olumide Olamigoke jumped 16.98m to settle for silver in same event.

    Lovina who competed in the 100M-T11 of para athletics ran 12.64secs to clinch gold medal in the event.

    Also, Doreen Amata failed in the quest to retain her title as she had to settle for silver after jumping 1.85m in the triple jump event.

    Ogho Oghene Egwere and Tyrone Akins added silver and bronze to Team Nigeria’s medal haul in the men’s 100m and 110m hurdles.

     

  • AAG: Nigeria hits quarterfinal in table tennis

    AAG: Nigeria hits quarterfinal in table tennis

    Nigeria men and women teams did not drop a match at the ongoing 2015 African Games to qualify for the quarterfinal round of the team event in table tennis.

    From the start, the male team took every match serious by ensuring that they defeated their opponents with same margin of 3-0. Four teams – Tunisia, Botswana, Namibia and Sudan were drawn with Nigeria in group two and true to their rating, the team completed the rout of all the four teams with an emphatic 3-0 bashing of Tunisia to top the group.

    Also, the women team led by veteran, Olufunke Oshonaike took a cue from their male counterpart when they hammered Botswana and Mauritius 3-0 to top the group and berth in the last eight of the championship.

    Debutant Ojo Onaolapo told NationSport Friday that he is happy making his final debut at the games but admitted that the best matches are yet to start. “I am happy that I have finally made my debut at the games and I am happy being part of the team’s qualification for the quarterfinal. But I must admit that the best matches are yet to start because when it gets to semifinal where Nigeria may likely face Egypt or Congo Brazzaville, that is when we will start feeling the competition. For now, we are just warming up for the big matches,” Onaolapo said.

    Like Onaolapo, another debutant, Rashidat Ogundele described her experience at the games as challenging as she is hoping to make podium in her first outing at the games.

    However, players from Uganda and Angola are being encouraged to aim high with the performance display by Oshonaike.

    Uganda’s Amina Kibone told NationSport that she is impressed that despite her age, Oshonaike still plays good than other younger players. “I thought I was too old at 23 to play table tennis but when I saw Oshonaike, I now know that I am still young to play. I am really encouraged by her performance,” she said.

    Ruth Alvares and Isabel Albino are fascinated by the style of play of Oshonaike whom they described as a legend of the game.

     

  • Egypt withdraws from AAG soccer events

    Egypt withdraws from AAG soccer events

    Egypt has pulled out of next month’s All Africa Games football events for both men and women, according to the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

    There was no official explanation for the decision of Egypt to withdraw from the events.

    Burundi (men) and Senegal (women) who were eliminated by Egypt in the qualifiers were readmitted to the competition but declined because the notice was too short, africanFootball.com reports.

    This means that Group B of the men’s event will feature only three teams – Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal, while Group B of the women’s event will also feature three teams – Cameroon, Ghana and South Africa.

    The tournament will be staged in Congo Brazzaville from September 6 to 18.

  • President Buhari approves funds for All African Games-Yakmut

    President Buhari approves funds for All African Games-Yakmut

    President Muhammadu Buhari has surprised those who think his administration will not accord sports priority by approving funds to ensure timely and adequate preparations ahead of the 2015 the All African Games.

    The Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut, told Prompt News on Monday morning at the Indoor Hall of the National Stadium, Abuja, after addressing the athletes that were training.

    The All African Games is holding in Congo Brazzaville from September 4 to 19, 2015. This is a clear departure from the usual practice of releasing funds two weeks to a major international event.

    An excited Yakmut promised to release the approved figure to the public in line with ‘Change Agenda’ which promotes transparency in governance.

    “Mr. President has just approved the funds for the All African Games and I understand we shall be formally informed on Tuesday (today).

    “So, as soon as we get the information about the exact figure approved from the budget we submitted, we will make it open to the public because we intend to run a very transparent administration.

    ” And I think by the time we finish computing all what we have done in the last three months, we are going to say how much has been spent on each item of the projects that we have executed including the Federations.

    “And I’m sure that you have noticed that the Federations are beginning to feel the public funding scheme especially the ones regarding the All African Games,” Yakmut told Prompt News.

    According to him, apart from the 19 sports that Nigeria will participate in, two other sports namely swimming and gymnastics have been placed on standby in the event that there would be athletes that are exceptionally good to represent the country in the two sports.

    To ensure that athletes have the best preparations, Yakmut said that the Federations that have requested for foreign technical support would have them.

    The Director General spoke further on this, “We are taking part in 19 events and two other events that are actually on standby. If we have pockets of athletes that are exceptionally good like in gymnastic and swimming, we will carry the on their merit.

    “Regarding technical aid, in fact, we are in global technical business and we cannot reduce ourselves to a situation that no matter how bad our coaches are, we must sustain and retain them.

    “What we have done is to support the four Federations that have requested that they will need technical back-ups from foreign countries.

    “So, wrestling has requested for two back-ups either from Europe, the United States or Canada. Table tennis has also requested fat technical support from Sweden, China or Japan.

    “Already, South Korea is supporting us on taekwondo and basketball has already recruited transparently.

    “All these we are doing to make sure that we don’t leave technical opportunities unattended to,” Mr. Yakmut assured.

  • Nigeria draws Ghana, Egypt in All Africa Games

    Nigeria draws Ghana, Egypt in All Africa Games

    Nigeria will renew its perennial rivalry with Ghana in the men’s event of the 2015 All Africa Games after both countries were drawn in the same first round group on Thursday, africanFootball.com reports.

    The tournament reserved for U23s will be staged in Congo Brazzaville in September.

    The Ghanaians, who are the defending champions, are drawn in a tough-looking Group B along with arch-rivals Nigeria, Senegal and Egypt.

    For Samson Siasia’s Dream Team VI this will be an ideal dress rehearsal should the former Olympic champions qualify for the CAF U23 Championship in Senegal, which will serve as a qualifying tournament for next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

    The team will battle Congo over two legs for a place at the U23 Championship in Senegal.

    Group A is relatively lightweight as it has hosts Congo, Sudan, Zimbabwe and Burkina Faso.

    The top two teams in each group will qualify for the semi-finals of the competition, which runs from September 4 to 19.

  • Super Falcons thrash Mali 8-0

    Nigeria’s senior female football team, Super Falcons, on Friday in Abuja, thrashed their Malian counterparts 8 – 0 in the final round return leg of the All African Games (AAG), qualifiers.

    The Falcons has, therefore, secured a place at the AAG 2015 scheduled for Congo Brazzaville in September.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that fans were thrilled by the performance of their darling team at the Abuja National Stadium.

    The match started on a fast note with the Nigerian side dictating the pace as Desire Oparanozie opened scoring three minutes into the game.

    The visitors fired a shot through Binta Diarra in the 12th minute but Falcon’s goalkeeper Ibubeleye Whyte thwarted that effort.

    In the 19th minute, Francisa Ordega gave the African Champions the second goal through a header from a corner-kick taken by Ngozi Okobi.

    London-based Asisat Oshoala scored the third goal in the 39th minute after many unsuccessful attempts.

    Oparanozie got a brace one minute before the end of first half through a smooth pass from Oshoala.

    Few seconds into the second-half, a rampaging Oshoala netted another goal through a low shot that left Malian goalkeeper Samake Goundo frustrated.

    In the 62nd minute, Ordega scored another goal after receiving a pass from Halimat Ayinde.

    The seventh goal came from the boot of the Captain of the team, Evelyn Nwabuoku, after a well taken corner-kick by Esther Sunday.

    Sunday was compensated in the 72nd minute when she scored the eighth goal for the Super Falcons.

    NAN recalls that the first leg of the match ended in a 1-1 draw in Bamako a fortnight ago.