Sports

PAGE 30

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023 S P R T

Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium will be ready in February -Contractor Assures

By Amaechi Agbo

The construction company handling the renovation of the playing pitch of Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, Reform Sports West Africa Limited has promised that the work will be completed next month and Rangers International FC will return to their home base.

Speaking in an exclusive interview in Abuja, the Project Manager, Architect Sani Mohammed regretted the delay in completion of the project and disclosed that the “Flying Antelopes” will return to the stadium to conclude their 2023 Nigeria Professional Football League, NPFL season.

Arch Mohammed explained that the delay in completion of the project was due to technical and logistical issues.

“We appreciate you for reaching us to get our side of the story.ñ on the remodeling of Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu. We are a construction company, Reform Sports West Africa Limited. We remodelled the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, built UNEC (University of Nigeria Enugu Campus) Stadium as well as Rangers Camp/ training pitch all in Enugu in 2009. Specifically, during the FIFA U-17 World Cup which Nigeria hosted and Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium was selected as one of the stadiums to host matches.

“We built the UNEC Stadium and Rangers Training Camp to global standard. And we delivered these projects within the time limit.

“It is unfortunate that the remodelling of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium is taking this long, and the delay is not our making. We encountered technical and logistical issues along the line and we appealed to the Enugu State Government for extension of time, which they graciously granted.

“We apologise to the good people of the state for the delay in the completion of the project but I want to assure you that Rangers will return back home in February to finish their league season.

“The astro turf arrived in Lagos inFebruary and we have made concerted effort to clear them. We are grateful that our effort is yielding results because the turf will arrive Enugu this week. The stadium is 98% completed.

“Reform Group West Africa is not new name in construction ND renovation of sports facilities in the country. We renovated Dan Ayiam Stadium in Owerri, we are renovating Lafia City Stadium in Nasarawa State. The score boards in Enugu, Calabar are our works. Our works ate numerous in Nigeria football/sports ecosystem,” he said.

Other stadium renovated by the Reform Sports West Africa Limited include Tafawa Balewa Stadium, Bauchi Abacha Barrack Abuja military formation pitch, Akure Township Stadium, Ondo State

Similarly, the Enugu State Government has assured that the renovation of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium pitch will be completed in no distant time.

The commissioner for youth and sports in the state, Manfred Nzekwe gave the assurance in a press briefing on Saturday.

Mr Nzekwe who regretted the delay in completion of the project and appealed the good people of the state and Rangers supporters for more patience. Adding that the project will not go into litigation and as they are exploring every necessary means the get the remodeling completed before the end if the 2022 Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL season.

“The stadium will be completed, I assure you. Our people should have confidence in the government. We have done our part as a government and this will not go into litigation. But we are going to use all the apparatus of government to get this job completed so that both government and the people will be happy as we are winding up.

“The government is not sleeping. There are activities that even government is supposed to be holding here (in the stadium) not just the foot all alone. But because of this, they are not holding. It is affecting everybody and the government of his Excellency, (Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi) is not sleeping.

“I reassure you that this whole thing will be addressed. I want to appeal that the situation we find ourselves, mostly our darling team that is playing outside, if there is anything we can do to support them and come out of that situation because they are playing outside, I know that one day, they will be playing at home: let us encourage and support them,” he said

Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium Enugu pitch under renovation

CSED trains 104 Game Masters, students on basic badminton in Taraba State

By Amaechi Agbo

Community Sports and Educational Development CSED Initiative, a Nongovernmental Organisation with core mandate in sports development, has carried out a three-day basic badminton training for game masters/mistresses and secondary schools students in Jalingo, the Taraba state capital with a call on young talents to combine education with sports to enable them excel in the sporting world.

The State’s Director of Sports Council, George Shitta who is also a board member of Badminton Federation of Nigeria and a national coach threw the challenge during the closing ceremony which took place at the Jolly Nyame Indoor Sports hall on Thursday.

Eighty students from eighteen various secondary schools of both federal, state, and private within the state capital participated in the training with twentyfour game masters and game mistresses, as well as six instructors.

Shitta told sports journalists that the training was powered by a nongovernmental organization, Community Sports and Educational Development Initiative (CSED) in conjunction with Taraba Badminton.

He said it was aimed at equipping the young talents with basic knowledge of the game for them to build on, to enable them become national and international players like the former Africa number one badminton player who is from Taraba State and also participated in the event, Jimkan Ephraim.

The Director also appreciated the gesture by the CSED for selecting Taraba as one of the states that will benefit from its project for reintroducing the netball that will take place soon.

George Shitta further revealed the CSED has donated 60 rackets, 18 tubes of shuttlecocks, and 17 nets where each school goes with a 2 set of two rackets (4 inside) to be use for doubles mix, and doubles singles.

He explained that the remaining 6 rackets were given to the Director of Sports, state ministry for Basic and secondary education for him to also continue praying the game and not to forget badminton.

Shitta, however, promised to complement the gesture by the CSED by organizing an inter-school badminton tournament for the schools that participated in the training where prizes would be won.

In an interview, the Director of Sports, Taraba state ministry for Basic and secondary education, Mr. Affos Musa Emmanuel promised to lias with the Director of Sports Council, George Shitta to get some coaches to go round with them to various schools that participated in the training for them to erect badminton cut to encourage them.

Some of the pupils who participated in the training, Ruth Andoor (13 years old) from Government Technical Training School (GTTS) Jalingo, Emmanuel George Shitta (11 years old) from Destiny Success Academy, and Anna Sylvester Jabire (15 years old) from Raddar Metropolitan School Jalingo all affirmed that they have gained more knowledge of the game.

Also Victoria Edoche (13 years old) from Our Lady of Consolation, Telltuly Calib Jibril (13 years old), and Ayaungwa Wisdom (13 years old) from H. Heritage Academy described the training as impactful and promised to be committed and focus on the game unlike before.

However, one of the instructors, Emmanuel Sambo said the training will go a long way in encouraging the young talents to become champions in badminton, and urged the Taraba State government to pay attention to the sports sector to improve its internally revenue generation.

Highlights of the training were presentation of rackets, tubes of shuttlecocks, nets, and a group photograph.

PEOPLES DAILY, TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2023

PAGE 31 S P R T

Lampard Sacked As Everton Manager

By Amaechi Agbo

Chelsea legend, Frank Lampard has been relieved of his duties as Everton manager after West Ham 2-0 defeat

Former England midfielder Lampard, 44, replaced Rafael Benitez in January 2022 with the team 16th in the table and helped Everton avoid relegation.

Everton are now looking for their sixth permanent manager in five years.

Lampard’s dismissal follows Everton owner Farhad Moshiri attending his first match since October 2021 as the Toffees succumbed to defeat at the London Stadium - their third consecutive defeat in the league.

The former Chelsea boss arrived at Goodison Park in January 2022, and although he helped the club avoid the drop last season, he leaves Everton with 15 points from 20 games and three wins this term - the worst victory record in the division. Everton are 19th in the table, with only Southampton below them on goal difference.

Everton fans protested against the club’s hierarchy as Jarrod Bowen’s double condemned their team to defeat but the board have instead responded by dismissing Lampard.

After a 1-1 draw at reigning champions Manchester City on 31 December, Everton have lost 4-1 to Brighton at Goodison Park, were knocked out of the FA Cup with a 3-1 defeat at Manchester United and were then beaten by Southampton despite taking the lead, before the latest defeat by West Ham.

They have managed only

Frank Lampard

three wins all season.

There have been widespread and vocal protests from fans against the board in recent games, and supporters staged a sit-in demonstration after the loss to Southampton.

Everton’s board of directors missed that game because of what the club claimed was a “real and credible threat to their safety”.

Lampard took over at Goodison with Everton 16th in the table, six points above the relegation zone last season

Everton had 10 defeats in the remaining 18 games of the season, but secured their survival with a 3-2 comeback victory against Crystal Palace on what Lampard called “one of the greatest nights” of his career.

Lampard won only 12 of his 44 matches in charge in all competitions, a win percentage of 27.27 that is far worse than his record at Derby (42.1%) and Chelsea (52.4%).

As a player, Lampard made 648 appearances and won 11 major trophies during 13 seasons with Chelsea after joining from boyhood club West Ham in 2001.

He left Stamford Bridge in June 2014 as the club’s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals and had stints at Manchester City and New York City before ending his 21-year professional playing career in 2017.

Over 2000 international elite athletes register for Access Bank Lagos City Marathon

Over two thousand international Elite athletes from across the world have registered for the Gold-Label Access Bank Lagos City Marathon, setting a record of entries for any Marathon race on the continent of Africa.

The General Manager of the race, Yussuf Alli, said at the weekend that: “The Elite entries would have been more, if the organisers had not regulated it to a barest size over a week ago. Towards effective and efficient management of the race. The large size was expected at it’s one of the effects of a Gold-Label race. And Nilayo Sports Management is ready for it.”

Yussuf revealed that majority of the Elite athletes are from Europe, East Africa, North Africa, West Africa, Asia and South America.

“And out of the pool of registered international Elite athletes, the organisers have officially invited 47 male and 29 female world class athletes that will lead the bunch of first class athletes in the race. While the rest will compete to chase the GoldLabel status as they continue in their quest to garner requisite international points to attain first-class Elite status as they grow professionally.”

He noted that; “The Lagos City Marathon’s quest to attain to the Platinum Label race status, which is uppermost in the desires of the organisers, Nilayo Sports Management Ltd, will be boosted if two male Elite athletes can finish the race under 2 hours 10minutes and three female athletes finish under 2 hours 12 minutes.”

Yussuf, a former African record holder in the Long Jump, noted that, for the 8th edition of the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon Gold-Label race, the athletes would have their running numbers in front and their names at the back of their competition jerseys.

“And to avoid any form of controversy, as clearly stipulated by World Athletics, there will be the photo finish device at the finish line of the race at the Eko Atlantic City, Victoria Island.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the first ever Gold-Label race in Nigeria, the Expo for the Access Bank Lagos City Marathon will begin this morning at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere Lagos

The Expo would see registered runners pick up their running kits and numbers. The organisers will also have series of exhibitions towards the success of the Gold-Label race. Health talks and several other events geared towards the sucessful organisation of the race.

The Expo will run from today January 23 to February 2, two days to the race on February 4. The start line for the Gold-Label Access Bank Lagos City Marathon has been slated for the National Stadium, Surulere, for the full Marathon.

There will also be the 10km race, which for the first time in Nigeria would see Elite athletes compete, as the organisers will be using the race to apply for a GoldLabel race status for 10km.

Novak Djokovic defeats Minaur to reach Australia Open quarter-final

Novak Djokovic made light work of home hope Alex de Minaur as he continued his pursuit of a record-extending 10th men’s title at the Australian Open.

Serbia’s Djokovic, 35, still had his left thigh strapped but he looked in no trouble as he won 6-2 6-1 6-2.

The fourth seed will play Russian Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals.

Rublev, seeded fifth, saved two match points - and fought back from 5-0 down in a final-set tiebreak - to beat Danish teenager Holger Rune.

Later on Monday, the 25-yearold discovered he would face Djokovic after the former world number one had too much quality for 22nd seed De Minaur.

On the prospect of facing Djokovic, Rublev joked: “No-one wants to face Novak, I want to be in the other half of the draw.”

Djokovic has been wearing strapping all tournament to protect a hamstring injury and asked for treatment in a medical timeout during his third-round win over Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov.

But, despite the concerns of his fans, he moved freely in a confident win against De Minaur, which took two hours and six minutes.

“I kept my focus all the way through to play my best match of this year so far,” Djokovic.told BBC Sports

“Tonight it wasn’t obvious I was dealing with an injury. I didn’t feel anything today, today was great.”

De Minaur, who became the final Australian player to fall in the singles, was unable to cope with Djokovic’s quality and precision from the baseline.

Rublev should provide a sterner examination - of Djokovic’s fitness and his incredible record at Melbourne Park - when the pair meet on Wednesday.

Djokovic infamously did not play last year after a row about his vaccination status which led to court hearings and his eventual deportation.

On his return, he has continued from where he left off at what he calls his “second home”, extending his winning streak there to 25 matches.

As well as a 10th Australian Open, Djokovic is going for a record-equalling 22nd men’s Grand Slam title.