The first qualifier of the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping 2015 season will take place at the Ocala CSIO4* in Florida, USA on Friday 13 February, attracting a field of six teams.
The starting order, which was determined by a draw held in Ocala yesterday, will be as follows:
Canada, Mexico and USA will be eligible for Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping points in The North and Central America & Caribbean League.
The Netherlands’ team celebrate victory in the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping 2014 Final in Barcelona, Spain tonight. (L to R), HRH Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia and Dutch team members Jeroen Dubbeldam, Gerco Schroder, Chef d’Equipe Rob Ehrens, Maikel van der Vleuten and Jur Vrieling. (FEI/Dirk Caremans)
Friday’s competition will begin at 13.00 EST (local time in Florida, GMT-5 hours) and will be broadcast live on FEI TV, the FEI’s official online video platform.
The FEI is providing a wide range of online information resources in connection with the Furusiyya FEI Nations Cup™ Jumping.
The Flying Eagles trounced Babayaro FC of Abuja 9-0 in a test game played at the FIFA Goal Project in Abuja Wednesday.
The Nigeria U20 team are preparing for two warm-up matches against their Ghanaian counterparts later this month in Accra.
Bernard Bulbwa and Usman Hassan scored a brace each, while the goal scorers were Izu Omega, Ifeanyi Matthew, Obinna Nwobodo, Samuel Okon and Gabriel Ikechukwu.
The Nigeria U20s started slowly and could only score twice in the first half.
Flying Eagles
But after the interval, the Flying Eagles stepped up their game to score seven goals.
The team are expected to leave for Accra via Lagos Friday afternoon.
They will play their first warm-up match against Black Satellites on Sunday, before they a second game against the same opponents on February 18.
They are expected back in the country on February 19.
The Flying Eagles are drawn in Group A of the 2015 African Youth Championship, which kicks off in Dakar, Senegal on March.
The other teams in that group are hosts Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Congo, while Ghana are in Group B along with South Africa, Mali and Zambia.
Nigeria’s U-17 team, Golden Eaglets, rounded off their preparation towards Niger 2015 with an impressive 4-1 win against Fasbir Integrated Football Academy at the Giginya Memorial Stadium in Sokoto on Wednesday.
Golden Eaglets scored twice through Victor Osimhen and Suleiman Abdullahi via penalty in the first half with additional two goals by substitutes Christian Charles and Samuel Chukwueze while Fasbir’s was also a first half penalty goal by goalkeeper Yusuf Yusha’u who was adjudged the man-of-the match.
The match was watched by an enthusiastic crowd including Mallam Muhammed Nasiru Saidu, Chairman of Sokoto Football Association; Coach Siji Lagunju of the NFF amongst others. But the stadium did not come alive until the 20th minute when Suleiman Muhammed waltzed his way into the box and flicked the ball on the path of Victor Osimhen whose twice-taken shot was stopped by agile goalkeeper Yusha’u.
Six minutes later, Suleiman Abdullahi who wore the captain’s band broke free from the right flank but was brought down in his stride inside the box; Osimhen converted the resultant penalty kick to give the Golden Eaglets the lead.
But four minutes later, the Golden Eaglets conceded a penalty after the ball bounced off the hand of a defender following a corner kick and Goalkeeper Yusha’u stepped forward to fire the penalty behind Goalkeeper Amos Benjamin.
Eaglets took the lead towards the end of the first half courtesy of another penalty in the 44th after Osimhen was brought down with only the goalkeeper to beat and Suleiman smartly dispatched the ball behind Yusha’u yet again.
The Golden Eaglets virtually took control of the match on resumption of the second half following the introduction of Kelechi Nwakali, Samuel Chukwueze and Orji Okonkwo but Yusha’u foiled their attacking initiatives time and again. But with ten minutes to spare, the Golden Eaglets added two quick goals courtesy of Christian Charles at the end of a triangular pass involving Abdullahi and Ayodeji Bamidele in the 80th minutes. Two minutes later, Chukwueze slotted the last goal during a goalmouth melee.
The traditional pre match greetings by the two teams
Golden Eaglets Vs. Fasbir: A.Benjamin(A.Udoh 56)- A.Saddam(L.John); L. Halilu(A.Bamidele 77); C.Kanu;A.Usman;A. Ukoh(K.Nwakali); K.
Michael;S. Abdullahi; E.Osinachi(O.Okonwo 45); V. Osimhen(C.Charles
74); S.Muhammed(S.Chukwueze 45).
Amuneke salutes Sokoto fans, Fasbir Academy Golden Eaglets’ Head Coach, Emmanuel Amuneke was full of praise for the passionate Sokoto football fans as well as Fasbir Integrated Football Academy despite losing 4-1 to the Nigeria’s Under-17 team at the Giginya Memorial Stadium in Sokoto on Wednesday.
The former African Footballer of the Year said here that he was impressed with the large turnout of the fans at the match as well as the spirited play of the fledging academy owned by Mallam Muhammed Nasiru Saidu, the chairman of Sokoto Football Association and the Assistant Director, Legislative Budget at the National Assembly.
“First and foremost, we want to thank the people of Sokoto for their hospitality and support to us since the first day we arrived here,” Amuneke stated. “Our appreciations also go to the Sultan, the government and ordinary fans who are wishing us well as we travel to Niger for the African Under-17 championship.”
Speaking further, Amuneke said the youngsters from Fasbir have nothing to be ashamed because they put up a brave performance against the Niamey-bound Golden Eaglets.
Golden Eaglets line up against Gabon
“Personally, I’m taking some positives from this match since it allowed us to see how much we have adapted to the weather in Sokoto which is almost the same we are going to meet in Niamey,” he noted. “I must also commend Fasbir because this is about the best academy we have played; I don’t want to single out a particular player but collectively, I like them because this is what a model academy should be.”
Meanwhile, the Golden Eaglets made of 21 players and 10 officials would depart Sokoto for Niamey on Thursday to seek glory at the 11th African U-17 Championship slated to hold between February 15 and March 1.
CAVB Continental Cup Sub Zonal Phase Pool 12, Zone 7
Mauritius Men and Women beach Volleyball teams claimed both gold medals in the CAVB Continental Cup Sub Zonal Phase Pool 12, Zone 7 held at Archipel in Mauritius this week.
Mauritius finished first in both gender, beating the host country 3-1 in men’s side whereas a golden set was needed to determine the winning team on the Women’s side. The Mauritian team with Natalie Letendrie and Rachel Christine won it 15-10.
Before the golden set, Stephanie Louise and Cristine Parsooramen forced Seychelles Team B to a tie-beak. T.Elizabeth and L.Tyrant were in front by 11-6 and were at four points to a final victory but the Mauritians came back over their opponent to level at 12-12 to have a first match point at 14-13 and a second at 15-14 before winning the match by 17-15 to the great excitement of the Mauritian delegation.
CAVB Continental Cup Sub Zonal Phase Pool 12, Zone 7
Mauritius, who won the gold medal in African Games in 2011 and represented Africa at the 2012 London Olympic Games, will be again a serious contender in this edition of Continental Cup and will be well followed in the next round if she is well seeded.
This win on the ladies side help very much the man’s side who didn’t make any mistake to win the two match easily in two sets.
CAVB Continental Cup Sub Zonal Phase Pool 12, Zone 7
Before that, the Team B (Stephane Moonisamy and Olivier Alfred) were beaten narrowly by the Bijoux brothers in the tie-break whereas Gilbert Alfred and Eric Louise didn’t make any mistake to win by two sets over E.Flore and H.Ernesta.
The competition was under the supervision of Mr.Kaysee Teeroovengadum, President of the Zone 7 and the referee delegate was Mr. Rodrigue Deboue from Cameroon.
The Seychelles Federation organise for the first time a competition of beach-volley and did it with great professionalism.
CAVB Continental Cup Sub Zonal Phase Pool 12, Zone 7
Results
Women
Seychelles A 2 Mauritius B 1 (21-10, 8-21, 16-14)
Seychelles B 0 Mauritius A 2 (15-21, 14-21)
Seychelles A 2 Mauritius A 0 (21-11, 21-18)
Seychelles B 1 Mauritius B 2 (21-11, 16-21, 15-17)
Golden Set:Seychelles 10 Mauritius 15
* Mauritius win 3-2
Men
Seychelles A 2 Mauritius B 1 (23-21, 19-21, 16-14)
Seychelles B 0 Mauritius A 2 (10-21, 13-21)
Seychelles A 0 Mauritius A 2 (17-21, 20-22)
Seychelles B 0 Mauritius B 2 (17-21, 19-21)
* Mauritius win 3-1
CAVB Continental Cup Sub Zonal Phase Pool 12, Zone 7
Goalkeeper, Sunday Rotimi has given reasons why he returned to Dolphins after holding discussions with Sunshine Stars in the off season.
Rotimi said he spoke with officials of the Akure based club and agreed to play for them but changed his mind after speaking with coaches, management members and some fans of Dolphins
“It is not a rumour. You know a top player when he gets offers at the end of the season and that was the case with me,” Rotimi said.
Dolphins Fc
“I actually went to Sunshine Stars in the off season and agreed terms with them but a lot of things happened and I returned to Dolphins,” Rotimi said.
Rotimi said the offer from Sunshine Stars was a very good one but after dues considerations he returned.
“After speaking with the coaches and a few other people I decided to come back to Port Harcourt. Money, after all is not everything.
“I’ve been here for so long and made lots of friends and also when I heard that they were considering the option of registering me for the CAF Confederation Cup I thought it was wise to return.”
“I have a good relationship with people here and I have never been treated badly too. I also didn’t want to disappoint the team as regards the CAF Confederation Cup since they haven’t disappointed me too,” Rotimi said.
Dolphins goalkeeper Sunday Rotimi
Sunday Rotimi first signed for Dolphins from Sunshine Stars in 2004.
After one year with the club where he won the League and Cup double he moved to Israel and retuned in 2006 and has remained with Dolphins ever since, winning the FA Cup in 2007 and the League in 2011.
The who’s who of table tennis are all in Kuwait City ready for the Kuwait Open, which is the first GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour Super Series of the year starting today (11 February 2015) and running until Sunday 15 February 2015.
The Super Series is the highest and most prestigious tier of the GAC Group 2015 World Tour, which attracts all the world’s best players as the most prize money and world ranking points are on offer.
120 men and 70 women will fight it out in Kuwait for six titles: Men’s & Women’s singles, Men’s & Women’s doubles and Men’s & Women’s Under 21 singles and US$300,000 prize money!
The big four Chinese super stars XU Xin, MA Long, FAN Zhendong and ZHANG Jike have all won the Kuwait Open once, but none of them have won it twice. This motivation to create history, plus the chance to get an edge over their rivals early in the season will spur on these top stars.
Stefan FEGERL (AUT) and LIN Gaoyuan (CHN), winner of the Men’s Doubles, posing for a photo with their cheque and trophy at the GAC Group 2014 ITTF World Tour Kuwait Open in Kuwait City, Kuwait. Credit ITTF
The evergreen 38-year-old Vladimir SAMSONOV (BLR) is the other player in the field that has tasted success in Kuwait, and will again be one of the top challengers to the Chinese, beside Marcos FREITAS (POR) and CHUANG Chih-Yuan (TPE).
LI Xiaoxia (CHN) has won Olympic and World Championship gold, along with basically every title on offer in international table tennis. Despite these titles, she has never won the Kuwait Open, a glaring omission from her trophy cabinet that she is desperate to change come Sunday.
The 27-year-old is on the comeback from a knee injury which has affected her form in early 2015, but with LI Xiaoxia, you always have to assume she can beat anyone on her best day.
She will have to be at her best to defeat her world number one and two teammates DING Ning and LIU Shiwen, as well as the Olympic bronze medalist from Singapore FENG Tianwei who won three World Tour titles last year.
The 2015 World Tour is offering a record US$3,000,000 in prize money and will also be the most viewed in history, with more events shown live throughout the world on television and all the events being shown live on ITTF’s live streaming platform, itTV.
As was the case in 2014, the GAC Group 2015 ITTF World Tour will be split up into three tiers (highest first): Super (6 events), Major (6 events), Challenge (11 events).
The top 16 singles and top 8 doubles pairs on the World Tour Standings will then be invited to the prestigious World Tour Grand Finals at the end of the year, the location to be announced later.
…As Qatar revokes issued visas of taekwondo impersonators
The Qatar Taekwondo Federation earlier today revoked issued visas of a total of 16 persons who fraudulently obtained the Visas by posing as members of the Nigeria Taekwondo National Team, seemingly scheduled to attend the prestigious 1st Qatar International Taekwondo Opens, a G-1 ranked World Taekwondo Federation sanctioned event, billed to hold at Qatar from 6 – 9 March, 2015.
Coincidentally, some members of the actual Nigeria National Taekwondo Team that won medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games are also billed to compete for Nigeria at the event.
Taekwondo Team to the 2014 Commonwealth Taekwondo Games [L-R: Judith Usifoh, Adaeze Asigbe, Chiamaka Onumonu, Shola Olowookere, Sunday Onofe, Chinazum Nwosu, Jamilu Mohammed, Josephine Esuku, Shola Olushola, Adamu Abubakar Isah, Ebere Blessing Nwakanma and Team Captain & Athlete-Coach, Chika Chukwumerije]. Uche Chukwumerije and Murtala Mohammed are not in the picture
The unscrupulous scheme was revealed as part of an aggressive drive by the International Department of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation [NTF] to tackle visa racketeering through Sports head-on, where the first step of the progressive NTF is a constant check on the websites of international ranked tournaments to see if there are any suspicious names registered as members of the Nigeria Taekwondo Community.
A routine check earlier this week which revealed the registration of 16 persons, not in any way associated with the sport of Taekwondo in Nigeria, set off the alarm bells. Unknown to the perpetrators, the Qatar Taekwondo Federation has an existing relationship with the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, who immediately contact their Middles Eastern counterparts to check-mate the fraudsters.
The [names, passport number, sex, and place of birth] of 16-persons as noted on their submitted international passports include:
The details of two more names [Irabor Christopher] and [Gabiel Olushola Isokpehi [A05722999, Male] are being expected by the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation within the next 48 hours.
Nigeria Taekwondo Federation uncovers Visa Scam
To disguise the fraud in their application to the Qatar authorities, the impersonators signed off their emails in the name of the current President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, George Ashiru, and gave the correct address of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation office located at the National Stadium, Lagos.
However, the false crafted-worded emails used by the perpetrators in their application [george_ashiru_presiden@outloook.com] and [taekwondofednig@yahoo.com], in addition to the false phone number of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation [08092667469] and false fax number of the Nigeria Olympic Committee [234 1 2801302] gave the game away.
In a confirmation email to fraudsters in which the NTF was copied, the Qatar Taekwondo Federation noted:
“Please note that the attached visas are no longer valid, It has been cancelled due to special instructions issued by non-validity of these visas. Accordingly, we would like to inform you not to use these visas and if used by anyone would not be allowed to enter the State of Qatar”
The President of the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation had a strong message to this group, and similar group trying to use Sports as an avenue to get Visa.
“The Nigeria Taekwondo Federation is a very active, progressive and well-connected organization that uses the Sport of Taekwondo to positively impact the lives of Nigerians and build career paths for hardworking Nigerian sportsmen and women. Your illegal activities harm the chances and careers of thousands of our upcoming and current Taekwondo practitioners in Nigeria. Stay away from Taekwondo and all Sports Federations”
The development points a bold way for many Sports Federation to tackle this far-reaching problem, in order to safe guard the chances of genuine Sportsmen and women.
In the build up to the Lagos State Football Association (LSFA) elections later this month, the election for the Divisional Football Associations of the Lagos State Football Association was successfully concluded at the head quarters of the Lagos football house Onikan Stadium, Lagos on Tuesday. After the submission of forms and a successful screening exercise was concluded on Monday, February 9 th 2015.
Hon. Dr. S.A Akin Aina, chairman Badagry Division Football Association
The Four divisions of the State FA retained status quo at both Chairman and board level as Hon. Dr. S.A Akin Aina, chairman Badagry Division Football Association and board members, Prince Kosoko Bashir Adesegun and Ekhator Anthony Egbinosun retained their seats unopposed.
It was the same situation in the Epe Division Football Association as both chairman and board members were returned to office unopposed. Osinaike Olusegun Olawale and Ashiru Jimoh Olasumbo and Warri Charles Benaibi were elected as chairman and board members respectively.
The Ikeja Division Football Association election was not any different from the previous two division election held prior to theirs as Taiwo Alagbe Radio retained his chairmanship post unopposed as did his board members Laloko Adewale and Duroshola Olajuwon Adenike.
Prince Ifalade Oyekan, Chairman Lagos Division Football Association
The Lagos Division was also the return of Prince Ifalade Oyekan as the Chairman while Mr Remmy Awosanya and Mr Onwuegbuzie were both returned unopposed as members of the board.
The Ikorodu Division Football Association election ended proceedings for the day just like the way the election started as the 2 man board led by Chairman Sonibare Lukman Abdul and renowned referee Jelili Ogunmuyiwa retained their seats.
Members of the Electoral committee and the newly elected chairmen after the swearing in ceremony
The dress rehearsal for the February 24 LSFA election was deemed successful by all parties, as the various boards have since been inaugurated. Screening for the State FA board and chairmanship seat will start on Wednesday 12th February, names of approved candidates will be forwarded to the General Assembly from the 17th to 23rd February after all appeals might have been successfully resolved from 13th- 16th of this month.
Commenting on the announcement made by City of Edmonton on February 10th (http://edmonton2022.com/news/) David Grevemberg, Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation said:
“We are obviously disappointed to hear Edmonton will not be part of the host city bidding process for the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The Edmonton bid team, in collaboration with their partners, has worked hard to lay the foundations of a great bid and we will work closely with them as they focus all efforts on bringing the Commonwealth Games back to Canada – where the Commonwealth Games first began – in 2026.
We now look forward enthusiastically to working with the Durban 2022 Bid team and their partners through the evaluation process so, together as a Commonwealth sporting movement, we can realise the ambitions of delivering Africa’s first Commonwealth Games. I’m confident that there will be a great 2022 Commonwealth Games to follow on from the fantastic experience of Glasgow and the dynamic Games currently shaping up in the Gold Coast for 2018.
We will continue to engage with CGAs, cities, communities and citizens to ensure the 2022 Commonwealth Games can create a world-class sporting stage for elite athletes of the Commonwealth as well as make a positive and lasting contribution to the legacy ambitions of a proud African Commonwealth city and its people.”
![Taekwondo Team to the 2014 Commonwealth Taekwondo Games [L-R: Judith Usifoh, Adaeze Asigbe, Chiamaka Onumonu, Shola Olowookere, Sunday Onofe, Chinazum Nwosu, Jamilu Mohammed, Josephine Esuku, Shola Olushola, Adamu Abubakar Isah, Ebere Blessing Nwakanma and Team Captain & Athlete-Coach, Chika Chukwumerije]. Uche Chukwumerije and Murtala Mohammed are not in the picture](https://finixsports.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/8-tkd-team-to-2014-commonwealth-games-e1416874984585.jpg)
newfanzone 