Nigerian Sports Festival : Day 5 Round up

gold medal winner, Jubril abubakar and silver medalist,, david Adeyemo from Bayelsa, with deputy governor

gold medal winner, Jubril abubakar and silver medalist, David Adeyemo from Bayelsa, with deputy governor of Lagos state, Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire

Some reports on actions on Saturday and Sunday 1-2 December at the National Sports Festival in Lagos Nigeria, tagged Eko 2012

NTTF suspends Lagos player for double registration

Segun Oguntade, Secretary, Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), on Sunday announced the suspension of a Team Lagos female player, Fatima Bello, for three years for dual registration.

Oguntade told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos that Bello was registered for Delta and Lagos States.

According to the secretary, Bello was licensed with Lagos State but took an appointment with Delta since April 2010 till September 2012.

“Fatima is formally registered with Lagos State in the books of the NTTF, only for Delta State to lay claim to her as their athlete and they were unable to prove it.

“And we had an emergency meeting where it was decided to suspend her from all table tennis events for three years, with immediate effect,” he said.

Oguntade added that all the matches she played and won would be awarded to the losers.

Lagos wins tennis gold medal

Host state, Lagos on Saturday won a gold medal in the men’s table tennis team event after a thrilling match with Rivers, winning 3-0.

Jide Omotayo, 17, finished the game for Team Lagos by defeating Paralympian medalist, Femi Alabi, in the last set of the match.

Omotayo told NAN that the gold won was to fulfill their promise to the Lagos State Government.

“We promised the state seven gold medals and this is just a show of our determination and appreciation for all it did to prepare us for the festival,” he said.

Omotayo said that he was able to out serve the Paralympian because he played to his coaches’ instructions.

“After the first round, the coach introduced new tactics for me to use and it led to my victory over an older hand in the game.

“And the impact of camping in China for a month really exposed us to better ways of playing the game and gave us an edge,” Omotayo said.

Also reacting to the match, Oladele Kehinde of Team Rivers blamed their loss on the petitions against them that led to the postponement of the match.

NAN reports that the match was postponed from November 30 to December 1 because of petitions against the team.

“We were demoralised with the fact that after preparing for the game on Friday, we were told that it had been postponed.

“So, today (Saturday), we were just lukewarm toward the match, hence we lost,” he said.

Ondo boxer moves to quarter finals

Olabode Olayide of Ondo State on Sunday qualified for the quarter-finals of the men’s boxing event of the 18th National Sports Festival (NSF), holding in Lagos.

Olayide, a light welterweight, made mince meat of Owolabi Ajanaoro of Zamfara in the third round of their scheduled three rounder.

Ajanaoro was clearly ahead, having piled up points through good jabs in the first two rounds but soon lost steam in the concluding third round.

Olayide, who had risked the first two rounds to size up his opponent, seized the moment when he noticed that Ajanaoro was gasping for breath to land telling punches that forced the referee to stop the contest.

Ajanaoro had made two forced trips to the canvass before the referee decided to call off the fight.

“My opponent was ahead of me on points, but I noticed that he lacked energy to continue and so I took advantage of this and started landing heavy punches,’’ Olayide said, stressing that “most of his punches landed on my opponent’s head.’’

Ajanaoro said he could have kept him (Olayide) away with his jabs but made the mistake of going all out for a knock out.

“I was ahead on points and could have kept him away but I underestimated him and ran into a hook that brought me down in the third round,” he added.

Ondo wins first gold medal

Team Ondo on Sunday won a gold medal from the Squash racquets event of the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos.

The medal was from the women’s team event of the squash racquets

Aina Ojo, Head Coach (Squash Racquets), Team Ondo, said he was happy at having contributed the first gold for the state.

According to him, the state will still win more gold medals from squash racquets.

“I am happy to win the first gold medal for the state. We prepared very hard before the festival and I am not surprised at the results.

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“I could recall that I promised the general manager of the sports council, Mrs Idowu Akinbulumo, to win many medals at the ongoing Games,” Aina said

Swimming event suspended because of high chlorine in pool

High concentration of chlorine in the swimming pool at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, has compelled the organisers to postpone the event to Dec. 3 at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos.

The event was to have started on November 29, but was shifted to December 2 and now to December 3.

Babatunde Williams, President, Nigeria Swimming Federation (NSF), said that the delay would provide enough time for the chemical to subside, to make the pool safe for swimming.

“It is necessary that the concentration of the chlorine in the water is neither too high nor too low because this may affect the swimmers’ skins adversely.

“It may lead to burning eyes and nostrils, dry itchy skin and scalp, as well as a cloudy pool, impairing under water visibility.

“We postponed the swimming event due to the safety of our swimmers. We discovered that the chlorine was too high and it can be dangerous to the skin.

“The technical people have added some chemicals to subdue the chlorine and we hope that by Monday the concentration would have reduced for swimmers to be able to swim.

“Our schedule will be very tight now, instead of starting today and finishing on Friday, we will now start on Monday and finish on Saturday, because we have no choice,’’ Fatayi-Williams said.

Also contributing, Olugbenga Lawal, the Technical Director of the competition reassured the contestants and their coaches that the pool would be ready for use on Monday.
“By then, the alkalinity of the pool would have worn-off, thereby reducing the harmful effect it may have on the swimmers,” he added.


Edo Female team thrash Kaduna

Team Edo trounced their Kaduna counterparts 7-0 in the female football event of the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Lagos.

The lopsided encounter which took place at the Agege Stadium saw the Edo girls running circles around their out-classed opponents.

Debrinze Blessing, wearing jersey number seven, drew the first blood for Team Edo in the second minute of the match. She followed with a second goal in the 60th minute.

The other goals in the match were scored in the 14th, 17th, 48th, 49th and 59th minutes of play.

Reacting to his team’s enterprising display, Emmanuel Osimeh, coach of the side expressed happiness over the heartwarming performance put by his girls.

“I am satisfied with their play. The girls have gone through a lot of training before the festival. I am looking forward to our next match against Lagos and I strongly believe we will put in our best,” he said.

In the same vein, Odiri Orezimobor, captain of the Edo team, attributed their victory to hard work and team spirit.

“We are all dedicated to the task and we have a dependable team in place. We will be facing Lagos with full force, even if they are the host state,” She said.

Female boxers thrill them

Rivers Anita Amakiri on Saturday dazzled Delight Oguazu of the Federal Capital Territory with 14 points to 2 points in the 48kg bout that thrilled fans as female boxing entered day three.

In the event at the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival at the National Institute for Sports (NISports) Indoor Sports Hall, Sulaiman Amida of Borno beat Ahuma Ihuoma of Abia by 11-4 points also in the 48kg.

Nancy Owohor of Benue lost to Jackson Rose of Akwa Ibom 6-2 points in the same category.
Egunjobi Yetunde of Ogun beat Adeniyi Modinat of Lagos 12-4 and Kolawole Anun of Ondo beat Lily Inema of Bayelsa 8-3.

Ohaeri Chiaima of Imo lost to Ekpelimode Sophia of Delta 8-1, while in the day’s final 48KG bout, Okon Elizabeth of Cross River defeated Liadi Rukaiyat of Kwara 6-4.

The intensity of the bouts grew stronger in the 51kg category with Effiong Ndumo of Akwa Ibom losing to Yakubu Fatimo of Ondo 4-1.

In the second bout of the category, Adeniyi Fajoke of Rivers beat Omoyayo Saadu of Ogun 4-7 to advance to the next stage of the competition.

The 54kg category produced three bouts with Okoye Chioma of Delta losing to Ukaegbu Cynthia of Imo 5-1, while Frank Judith of Rivers beat Okogiwa Sandra of Edo 2-0.

In the day’s final 54kg bout, Chukwu Roseline of Ondo lacked finesse and mobility as she lost 2-15 to Oriyomi Ayisat of Lagos.

In the 57kg category, Vivian Vincent of Team Lagos advanced with a 16-11 points win over Obuseh Marvelous of Delta, while Odion Onome of Ogun beat Caro Maxwell of Edo 9-0.

In the 64kg category, Oluwasegun Toyin of Ondo lost narrowly to Adeniji Bukola of Benue 2-4; Okeke Favour beat Busayo Alale of Gombe with referee stopping the contest in the first round.

Tijani Falilat of Ogun beat Amihe Chukwu of Imo 5-0; Oluwo Unke proved too strong for Abiodun Adeju as she advanced comfortably with 8-0 flawless win.

Promise John of Akwa Ibom overcame Mary Emmanuel of Kano with referee stopping the contest in the second round.

Action was intensified as the 75kg bouts between Edem Emen of Edo and Ogbo Scholota of Enugu ended early in the first round as referee stopped the contest in favour of Emen.

Popoola Wuraola of Osun lost 6-12 to Adejumola Toyin of Ogun as the day’s 75kg bout was wrapped up with victory for Ekung Mary of Akwa Ibom over Mohammed Birikisi of Rivers 8-1.

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