Iyaye Splashes Millions On Rivers United Stars

Rivers State Sports Commissioner, Honourable Boma Iyaye will reward players of Rivers United FC with the sum of N1 million if they record their first road win of the season on Sunday.

United travel to Lokoja where they will face Niger Tornadoes at the Confluence Stadium as the Nigeria Professional Football League enters match day six this weekend.

Honourable Iyaye says the financial incentive represents “good motivation” which should spur the lads to “a handsome win” on Sunday.

“The people of Rivers State love Rivers United and we want the club to well in all competitions this season.

“We are yearning for that first away victory in the NPFL which we believe will be the first of many to come.

“This move represents good motivation for the players and technical crew and we believe the result on Sunday will be favourable.

“If the boys get a draw against Tornadoes, they will be rewarded with N250,000. 00 (two hundred and fifty thousand naira.

“I also want to use this medium to announce that the sponsors of the club have paid all winning bonuses to all players and we also strictly adhere to the ‘enhanced salary structure’ in line with regulations of the League Management Company (LMC),” Iyaye told Rivers United media.

Rivers United currently sit in sixth place in the NPFL standings with nine points from a possible 15.

TAMPERE AND VALENCIA TO HOST 2018 IAAF WORLD ATHLETICS SERIES EVENTS

During the IAAF Council Meeting on Thursday (10), Council decided the host cities for two 2018 IAAF World Athletics Series events.

2018 IAAF World U20 Championships

Host city: Tampere, Finland

The Finnish city was the sole bidder and Council fully endorsed its bid to host this event. With Helsinki having twice staged the IAAF World Championships, this will be the first time that Finland has played host to an age-group IAAF championship event.

Tampere’s delegation included Tampere’s Deputy Mayor Anna-Kaisa Heinamaki, Perttu Pesa, Elisa Hakanen and Pasi Oksanen.

“Of course we are happy and proud,” said Deputy Mayor Anna-Kaisa Heinamaki. “Organising major events is part of our strategy to develop our city area and to provide healthier life from the babies to the elderly. It is also a great opportunity for us to invest in sport venues and sport clubs. Organising major events is a great way to combine everyday life exercising and elite sport.”

SEB COE
© Philippe Fitte / IAAF

2018 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships

Host city: Valencia, Spain

Ten years after hosting the IAAF World Indoor Championships, and 37 years after hosting the IAAF World Race Walking Cup, Valencia will stage its third IAAF World Athletics Series event. It will be the second time Spain has hosted the IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, 22 years after Palma de Mallorca staged the event.

Valencia’s delegation included Bid Committee President Paco Borao, Maite Girau, Jose Vicente Berlanga, Juan Manuel Botella and Jose Luis de Carlos.

“We are extremely proud to have won this bid and to represent Valencia, a city of road runners,” said Valencia’s Bid Committee President Paco Borao. “This is a project which brings together public institutions, sports institutions, athletics clubs such as the Correcamino Club of which I am president and the public society represented by the Foundation Trinidad Alfonso.”

IAAF President Sebastian Coe commented: “I am delighted to congratulate Tampere and Valencia, who have won the right to host the World U20 and World Half Marathon Championships in 2018. They each delivered impressive presentations and documents befitting the IAAF World Athletics Series and we are assured of successful competitions in two years’ time.

“I also thank Sopot for its candidature. As a previous host of the World Indoor Championships, it came as no surprise that their bid was high class, but as in all athletics competitions there can only be one winner.”

2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup African Qualifier: Nikyu Targets Massive Home Win

Coach Bala Nikyu says he would be telling his girls to go for as many goals as possible when they take on South Africa’s Bantwana in a 2016 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup African final round qualifier at the National Stadium, Abuja on Saturday.

The Flamingos have been training in Abuja for the past four weeks, following the second round annihilation of Namibia’s Baby Gladiators over two legs.

“Our objective would be to get the job done here in Nigeria before the second leg in South Africa. We are in confident mood, and have been motivated by the words of the NFF General Secretary who attended the team’s training session on Tuesday.

“We know how important qualification for the World Cup is to Nigerians. The girls are ready and rearing to go. We have worked hard over the past weeks and looking forward to a comfortable victory.”

Meanwhile, the Bantwana trained at the training pitch of the National Stadium, Abuja on Wednesday afternoon, after landing in Abuja in the early hours of same day.

While Nigeria has never failed to qualify for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup since it was launched in 2008, South Africa has only been at the 2010 finals (in Trinidad and Tobago) where they conceded 17 goals in three group phase matches against Germany, Korea Republic and Mexico.

Nigerians To Watch Eagles vs Pharaohs for N1000, N300

Tickets for the Nigeria, Egypt 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna on Friday, March 25 will go for N1000 and N300 for covered seats and popular stand respectively.

NFF marketing officials told thenff.com on Thursday that the prices remain the same from the Day 1 match between the Super Eagles and Le Sao of Chad played at the same venue on June 13, 2015.

The 25,000–capacity arena has hosted several matches of the various National Teams over the past decades, and on-going renovation work geared towards improving its look and standard of facilities would be completed a week before the game.

Thenff.com recalls that Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Samson Siasia and Assistant Director (Technical), Abdulrafiu Yusuf checked out the Ahmadu Bello Stadium and ongoing renovation works last weekend, during which Siasia expressed satisfaction with the playing turf and other areas.

Top officials disclosed on Thursday that another team of technical and competition staff would check out the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna by next week.

Nigeria welcome Egypt on Day 3 of the series, starting from 4pm on Friday, March 25, with the return leg taking place in Alexandria four days later.

COMBINED EVENTS AND RELAY FIELDS ANNOUNCED FOR IAAF WORLD INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS PORTLAND 2016

One week from now, the focus of the athletics world will be on the IAAF World Indoor Championships Portland 2016, which takes place from 17-20 March.

Much of the spotlight will be on the combined events as Oregon-based Ashton Eaton and Brianne Theisen-Eaton will be in action. World and Olympic decathlon champion Eaton will be aiming for his third successive world indoor heptathlon title, while Theisen-Eaton will be looking to win her first global title.

The size of the combined events fields for this year’s championships has been increased; for the first time since 1997, the pentathlon and heptathlon will have 12 athletes in each competition.

The invites for the combined events in Portland were based on the 2015 IAAF Combined Events Challenge, on last year’s outdoor world season lists, on this year’s indoor world season lists, plus one wild card.

Heptathlon field
Curtis Beach (USA)
Larbi Bourrada (ALG)
Mathias Brugger (GER)
Ashton Eaton (USA)
Kurt Felix (GRN)
Adam Sebastian Helcelet (CZE)
Oleksiy Kasyanov (UKR)
Jeremy Lelievre (FRA)
Tim Nowak (GER)
Petter Olson (SWE)
Samuel Remedios (POR)
Jorge Urena (ESP)

Pentathlon field
Makeba Alcide (LCA)
Katerina Cachova (CZE)
Georgia Ellenwood (CAN)
Alina Fodorova (UKR)
Morgan Lake (GBR)
Celina Leffler (GER)
Anastasiya Mokhnyuk (UKR)
Barbara Nwaba (USA)
Salcia Slack (JAM)
Brianne Theisen-Eaton (CAN)
Kendell Williams (USA)
Gyorgyi Zsivoczky-Farkas (HUN)

photo credit: Mardetanha
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

The IAAF has also received entries for the men’s and women’s 4x400m. The nations that will be contesting that event are:

Men
Bahamas
Belgium
Guyana
Jamaica
Nigeria
South Africa
Trinidad and Tobago
United States

Women
Jamaica
Nigeria
Poland
Romania
Ukraine
United States

39th ITF/CAT Junior Championship: Rain Washes Off Play Again As Nigerians Face Crunch Test

For the second day running, rain washed off play at the 39th ITF/CAT African Junior Championships which served off on Wednesday at the Tuks Tennis Club, Pretoria, South Africa. The 14 & Under and 16 & Under championship featuring about 120 players from 25 countries had barely commenced on Wednesday before the heaven opened up which forced organizers to rescheduled all the matches to Thursday morning but all the players and officials were forced to remain indoors as the rain failed to recede on Day 2.

“We were scheduled to play two games each to cover for the suspended matches but today is even worse. It’s been raining since early morning and not even a single match has been played,” Nigeria’s coach Mohammed Ubale said.

Two Nigerians Gabriel Friday and Michael Osewa were in action on Day 1 before their matches were suspended due to rain. Friday was leading Cameroun’s Paul Wamba 6-2, 3-2 while Osewa is tied 4-4 with Eliakin Coulibaly of Cote d’Ivoire before their matches in the Boys 14&under were put on hold.

Friday is the number six seed in Pool 5 which also has Assil Boussairy of Morocco and Aymen Moussa of Algeria. Osewa is the eighth seed and alongside Eliakin, he has eleventh-seeded Schalk Van Schalkwyk of South Africa and Salum Mutabazi of Burundi to also compete with in Pool 2.

For the girls 14&under, Barakat Oyinlomo Quadri is in Pool 7 which also has Kenyan Angela Nyangweso, Madagascan Finarita Andriamadison and Celine Van Min Lee of Mauritius. Marylove Edward, the 11-year-old sensation who is competing for the first time outside the shores of Nigeria will face a baptism of fire as she faces Makayla Loubser, the third seed from South Africa in her first match in Pool 2 which is completed by Manuella Eloundou of Cameroun.

In the boys 16&under, Christopher Itodo will battle in Pool 2 alongside South Africa’s Christaan Worst, Albert Njogu of Kenya and Fabrics Tuyishime of Rwanda while in Pool 5, Christopher Bulus will come face-to-face with number six seed, Egyptian Adham Gaber, Valia Rabarijaona of Madagascar and Shaun Andriamaro of Seychelles.

In the girls 16 &under, Adetayo Adetunji, who is based in South Africa, is drawn in Pool 5 which also has sixth seed homegirl Corin De Waal, Clenia Niyonshima of Rwanda and Sariaka Radilofe of Madagascar while Angel McLeod is in Pool 7 and will slug it out with third-seeded Diane El Jardi of Egypt, Lynda Benkaddour of Algeria, who is seeded number nine and Kenyan Faith Omurunga.
The round-robin pool matches are scheduled to be played over ten days with only the group winners advancing to the next stage.

Remo Stars Football Club Bow Out Of The Federation Cup

Remo Stars Football Club were knocked out of the 2016 Ogun State Football Association Cup by Almar FC via penalties.

The Ogun State Champions won’t be defending their title this year as the quarter final tie witnessed a goalless draw after 90 minutes and needed penalty shootout to decide the tie.

Couple of missed chances from the Sky Blue Stars saw Almar FC hold on to a barren first 45 minutes as they were setup not to concede and defend strongly.

The Amateur one side adopted the same pattern in the second half and had Sikiru Dauda to thank after he made a goal-line clearance from a goal bound strike from Remo’s Ewelike Edozie. This kept them in the game and gave them the momentum to keep the scores at level terms by the end of 90 minutes.

The penalty shootout witnessed a twist, Ndukwe Chizoba made the first save of the shootout but Adekola Mahruf couldn’t capitalize as Almar FC goalie Ali Seun responded saving his penalty while Shiju Oshobe lost his spot kick afterwards to give Almar FC the opportunity to convert their kick and win the tie.

Remo Stars Football Club Captain Abiodun Awoyemi in a depressing tone expressed his disappointment with the team’s failure to progress describing it is as a bitter pill to swallow.

Remo Stars Football Club

“It’s difficult to accept that we are out of the competition after the first game, we won this competition last year and we wanted to defend it once again and knowing this won’t make us play in the Federation Cup just makes everything hard to accept.

“We just have to let go, focus and prepare well for the only task ahead in the Nigeria National League and we have to reward ourselves with a better outing in the League.”

This defeat means Remo Stars Football Club will not be participating in the 2016 Federations Cup as the two finalists in the State Football Association Cup will be representing the state in the Federation Cup.

MORE THAN 80 DIVERS TO ATTEND INAUGURAL DIVING WORLD SERIES BEIJING

The 2016 four-leg circuit of the FINA/NVC Diving World Series is about to kick-off, with a first rendezvous to be held in Beijing (CHN) this weekend, from March 11-13.

Approximately 80 of the world’s best divers are announced to take part in the first leg which will be held in the National Aquatics Centre, also known as the “Water Cube”, the aquatic venue during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

Sport’s big names such as Olympic champion Qiu Bo (CHN), current World champions He Chao and Shi Tingmao (CHN), Tom Daley and Jack Laugher (GBR), Russia’s famous divers Evgenii Kuznetsov and Ilia Zakharov as well as Italy’s Tania Cagnotto (gold medal in Kazan) are ready to make a splash. Team Canada, among many other internationally-recognised athletes, is also attending the event with nine experienced divers.

The countries invited to this prestigious event are: Australia, Canada, China, France, Great Britain, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Ukraine, USA, as well as some athletes competing under the FINA flag.

Ten events are on the programme; the men’s 3m and 10m, the women’s 3m and 10, the synchronised 3m and 10m events (men and women), and the mixed 3m and 10m. The mixed events were first introduced to the Diving World Series programme last year.

The prize money for this leg is of US$ 120’000, to be divided between all of the ten individual and synchro events, as follows: US$ 12’000 (1st place: US$ 5’000, 2nd place: US$4’000 3rd place: US$3’000).

In addition, FINA shall pay the overall prize money of US$ 870’000 to be divided between all of the 10 individual and synchro events, as follows:

1st place: US$ 30’000
2nd place: US$ 20’000
3rd place US$ 15’000
4th place US$ 10’000
5th place US$ 7’000
6th place US$ 5’000
Sub-Total US$ 87’000 / x 10 events = US$ 870’000

A diver participating in an individual event is entitled to the overall prize money only if he/she takes part in all the meets of the Series.