Category: Sports

Ablaze FC of Lagos has emerged winners of the FC Bayern Youth Cup Tournament with a 1-0 victory over Sporting Dreams of Abuja in a tightly contested final played in Abuja.

The final zonal tournament of FC Bayern Youth Cup Nigeria, which held in Lagos in February, had 8 teams namely Bethel FC, Mission Soccer Academy, Ablaze Academy, Lekki Junior Striker, the Future Academy, Esperanza FC, Leo Football Academy and Young Stars, competing for Lagos. Winners here proceeded to Abuja to battle it out for the National Finals, in which emerged Ablaze FC as winners.

Chisom Chikatara has won the 2018 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Super Cup title with his Moroccan club side Wydad Casablanca.

Chisom Chikatara who plays as a forward was in action for 63 minutes before he was substituted for Gabriel Quintana, as Wydad Casablanca defeated Congolese side Tout Puissant (TP) Mazembe 1–0 to win the 2018 CAF Super Cup.

The CAF Super Cup features the winners of the CAF Confederation Cup, and CAF Champions League winners in a one-off game.

Chikitara was part of the Wydad Casbalanca side that defeated Al Ahly SC to win the CAF Champions League and he made a return from injury to feature in the Super Cup clash.

After the withdrawal of Chikitara, Wydad Casabalanca broke the deadlock through Amin Thigazaoui in the 83rd minute, which turned out to be the only goal of the encounter.

Wydad Casabalanca earned $100,000 for their victory while TP Mazembe were rewarded with $75,000.

President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF), Margaret Binga has won the Best Female Referee Award at the 2018 World Taekwondo G-2 Egypt Open in Cairo, Egypt.

The former two-time African Champion was invited to officiate at the high-level event, which would earn her top ranking points, and improve her quest towards being promoted to a Grade-1 ranked International Referee.

Presenting the award to Margaret Binga was the President of the African Taekwondo Union, General Ahmed Fouly, who praised the work ethic and achievements of Binga.

In the words of General Ahmed Fouly:

“It is amazing that Binga still finds the time to perform her international referee duties and at the same time shepherd such a high level of taekwondo activities back in Nigeria. We are keenly following the flurry of activities in Nigeria and it is very commendable.

Her performance as a referee at this event is only a testament to her constant drive to achieve excellence while working hard.”

Thanking the tournament organizers, coaches and referees for voting her as the best Referee, Margaret Binga said:

“Nigeria has good referees but we would want to step up their training so more of us can take our place on the world stage. This would require a lot of work and I hope that awards like this can motivate us more towards this aim.

The award will be a boost to as the Federation has set a target to target 100 new referees before the end of the four-year tenure of the present board.

The last NTF National Referee Course in December had more than 35 participants, and the Federation will be looking to conduct more National Referee Seminars across the six geo-political zones as the year runs out.”

The World Taekwondo G-2 ranked Egypt Opens had 287 competing athletes from 37 countries in attendance.

Shell Nigeria emerged the overall winners of the 17th Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Games (NOGIG) at the Main Bowl of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Shell Nigeria won 11 gold, 12 silver and 11 bronze medals at the Games. NNPC finished second with 9 gold, 12 silver and 14 bronze medals, while the third place went to Chevron amassing 8 gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals.

South-South Zone of Nigeria has emerged the overall winners at the fourth edition of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) national games tagged “Doctors’ Games” held in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

South-South Zone in the first position had 17 gold, three silver and seven bronze medals.

North-Central Zone in the second position had three gold, one silver, four bronze medals, while North-West finished third with three gold and one bronze.

Hosts Ogun State were fifth with two gold, six silver and nine bronze.

For emerging as overall winners, South-South have now won every edition of the NMA national games (2014, 2016, 2017).

South-South Zone capped an eventful participation with a 4-1 win against South-East Zone in the football event in the closing ceremony.

This year’s edition which kicked off on 21 February, had doctors representing South-South, South-East, hosts Ogun, Lagos, North-Central, North-West all participating.

Participants competed in football, basketball, volleyball, table tennis, scrabble, draught and chess.

The fourth edition of the NMA national games was supported by Mega Lifesciences Nigeria Limited.

Jeremiah Ikoko of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has emerged the winner of the 6th Ships & Ports Table Tennis Championship.

The Championship, which holds annually and was sponsored by Dangote Ports Operations and the Nigerian Shippers Council, took place at the Apapa Club in Lagos.

Declaring the 6th Ships & Ports Table Tennis Championship open, the Chief Executive Officer of Ships & Ports, Bolaji Akinola, said the Championship was instituted to promote healthy interaction among maritime industry workers.

Sixty participants drawn from the Nigerian Ports Authority, Nigerian Shippers’ Council, NIMASA, Tin Can Island Container Terminal, Lagos Channel Management, Dangote Port Operations, Bollore Shipping, ENL Consortium and the Maritime Microfinance Bank, among others, took part in the championship.

Two employees of the NPA, Kehinde Borokini, a four-time winner of the championship and Phillip Amebe; Jeremiah Ikoko of NIMASA and defending champion Sunday Otaru (Bollore Logistics), beat all other contestants to qualify for the semi-final stage.

Jeremiah Ikoko emerged winner after an explosive match against Amebe, to win the cash prize of ₦100,000. Second-place Amebe received ₦50,000, while Otaru, who defeated Borokini in the third-place tie, won ₦30,000.

In the words of Ikoko:

“I appreciate Ships & Ports for organising this event; it is a welcome development. This is the second time I am participating. Last year the players were fewer; we were not up to 30.

The standard of play has also improved. I believe this championship will go further in the next two years.”