The sports loving people of Anambra State have expressed their appreciation to the awarding winning energy drink BULLET ENERGY DRINK for giving their kids the opportunity to play basketball.
The populace showed appreciation when they troop out in large numbers to watch their children play the game they love so much.
Bullet Energy drink also rewarded some exceptional kids with gift items.
Meanwhile Samuel Oguche is confident the Bullet Energy drink basketball youth camp will continue to foster the growth of basketball in Nigeria.
Speaking at the 3rd day of the Bullet Energy drink basketball camp in Onitsha, Oguche expressed satisfaction at the influence the camp has had on fledgling basketball talents- most of which he said have would go ahead to play for Colleges in the US- in Nigeria and other African countries.
He stated that the aim of the annual camp is not to develop and take kids abroad but for them to fit into the Nigeria and other African countries league system.
The 3rd edition of the camp, which began in Onitsha on Monday, saw kids from South east Nigeria with instructors drawn from Nigeria and the United States of America. Two foreign coaches Anthony Gorham and Patrick Greg Brown took take participants through the rudiments of basketball.
Anthony Gorham stressed the need for the participants to take their education seriously, as it was not possible for all of them to be drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA) league even if they play at colleges in the US.
With the Trap Men title awarded to the 32-year old from Novigrad (CRO), the ISSF World Cup Final in Shotgun events goes in the books. Great Britain claimed the 1st place of the medal standings, where also Italy, San Marino and Croatia recorded at least 1 Gold medal.
Today’s Trap Men event closed the ISSF World Cup Final in Shotgun events, the final competition of the 2015 ISSF season, held at the Nicosia Olympic Shooting Center in Latsia (CYP) since October 15th.
The reigning Olympic Gold medallist in this event, Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz, finally pocketed the 1st place, after his previous best result was a 6th place in Maribor (SLO) in 2012.
The 32-year old from Novigrad faced 45-year old Italian shooter Giovanni Pellielo in the Gold medal match, after they both concluded the semifinal round with the best score: 14 hits. In the medal match, they both missed one targets in their first two series, but as Pellielo missed again in his third one, Cernogoraz shuttered all of his last nine clays, topping the two-time Olympic Silver medallist and claiming what for him is the first Gold of the 2015 ISSF season.
“The six semifinalists were all very good shooters. So the level of the competition has been very high since the very first moment. I gave everything I had and it ended well.” Said Cernogoraz at the end of the match.
Then, he talked about his program in the following months. “This was my last competition for this year, I’m going to take a month off now and in December and January I will start with an intensive athletic training. In the end of January, then, I will go back to shooting again.” He concluded.
After placing 2nd at the 2015 ISSF World Championship in Lonato (ITA), Pellielo just finished one hit shy of the 1st place also here at the Nicosia Olympic Shooting Center. Anyway, he was pretty satisfied with his performance. “If this is the defeat, I’m ok with that. We are the best Trap shooters in the world, and it’s nice to find myself always battling with these guys.”
In the other medal match, more than two finals was required to determine the Bronze medallist, as Alexey Alipov and Massimo Fabbrizi concluded the regular round with 15 hits out of 15 targets. In the following shoot-off, Fabbrizi missed first, but only on his 23rd clay. Eliminated after the 15 semifinals targets, Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Erik Varga placed respectively 5th and 6th with 12 hits each.
With the five Shotgun globes awarded, Great Britain maintained the top of the medal standings it claimed after the first day of competitions, when Amber Hill and Steven Scott won the Gold medal in the Skeet Women and in the Double Trap Men event, respectively.
Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz pockets the Trap Men Gold, the last medal of the ISSF World Cup Final in Nicosia
The three remaining Gold medals were awarded to Italy’s Gabriele Rossetti in the Skeet Men event, to San Marino’s Alessandra Perilli in the Trap Women one, and to Croatia’s Giovanni Cernogoraz in the Trap Men event.
Italy also received a Silver medal thanks to Giovanni Pellielo, who finished 2nd in the Trap Men final, while the United States of America failed to reach the highest step of the podium, concluding with just 1 Silver and 1 Bronze, signed by Vincent Hancock and Morgan Craft.
The People’s Republic of China, Slovakia and Thailand all won 1 Silver medal each, while the other four Bronze medals was awarded to Denmark, Spain, India and Russia.
Golden Eaglets Head coach, Emmanuel Amuneke has described Saturday’s 2-0 win over the United States of America as a morale booster for the players in the quest to successfully defend the FIFA U-17 World Cup.
Chukwudi Agor and Victor Osimhen gave Nigeria a winning start courtesy of two second half goals against the Americans at the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015.
“The victory today against the USA was important for us and I want to congratulate the boys for making Nigerians happy,” Amuneke told thenff.com
He continued: “They (players) were tentative in the first 20 minutes and this was expected because it was the first time they were playing at a big stage such as the World Cup but it was important we won the first game since it would boost our confidence going into the next game against host Chile; so we are happy but will continue to work harder.
“Today’s victory against the USA is for Nigerians especially for many who stayed up late to watch the match,” stated the former African Footballer of the Year who refrained from praising the goal scorers against USA.”It is the job of all the players to do their respective jobs in the interest of the team. We want to play and win as a team and collectively, we want to work in order to achieve our overall objective at this tournament.”
Golden Eaglets Coach Emmanuel Amuneke
Meanwhile, midfielder Chukwudi Agor has described his goal and indeed the opening goal in Group A at Chile 2015 against the USA, as very important for his budding career. It was Agor’s second goal for the national U-17 side after he grabbed the winner in the 2-1 win over Brazil at the Suwon U-17 Tournament in September.
“I’m happy that I scored today,” said Agor, which means ‘gift from God’ in Ibo dialectic.”I’m dedicating the goal to my sister, Oluchi.”
The Golden Eaglets will, in the meantime, hit the road on Sunday for Vina del Mer where they will play host Chile at the 24,000 Capacity Estadio Sausalito on Tuesday.
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has announced the Golden Eaglets will finally fly out for a pre-World Cup training camp in Argentina today after several delays.
The team of 25 players are expected to make the trip, which was previously delayed because of visa issues.
Nigeria are the defending U-17 world champions and they are drawn in a first round group with hosts Chile, Croatia and United States of America. They begin their title defence on October 17 against the USA in Santiago.
United States of America became the first team in history to hold Olympic, World Championship, World Cup and World League crowns at the same time when it beat Netherlands 5-4 in the gold-medal final tonight.
Netherlands was denied a second gold medal after winning in Perth in 1991 and now has five silver medals from this event. For the USA it was a fourth title after victories in 2003, 2007 and 2009.
Twice champion Italy won the bronze medal over Australia in a penalty shootout, closing the match at 7-7 and winning the penalties 5-3 for a 12-10 victory.
USA SETTLES FOR WORLD DOMINATION AND ALL THE TROPHIES. PHOTO CREDIT FINA.ORG
Greece was involved in its third penalty shootout in four days – two for men – when it came back seven times against China for 9-9 to force the five shots. However, like the men the night before, Greece lost the shootout, 3-4 in China’s 13-12 victory.
In the classification match for seventh, outgoing champion Spain beat Russia 15-10.
The Skeet Women event opened the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca. Italy’s Diana Bacosi won her second world cup Gold in a row, leaving China’s Yu in second place.
The third Shotgun stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series has been officially opened in Larnaca, Cyprus, yesterday evening. The competition will run from the 26th of April right through the 3rd of May, and will be held at the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range.
490 athletes coming from 77 countries are participating in the stage, competing in the five Olympic events of Trap, Double Trap and Skeet shotgun shooting.
The best shooters of the world arrived here in Cyprus, as ten Olympic Quota Places – the qualification slots for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – are up for grabs at the competition.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the ISSF President Olegario Vazquez Raña said: “Dear shooters, officials and coaches, dear friends: welcome to the ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Larnaca. I am very happy to be in this beautiful island. I would like to thank the Organizing Committee for their excellent work in the preparation of this event, we are very happy to hear that athletes from 77 countries and five continents arrived here in Cyprus to participate in the third shotgun stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series.”
Gold medalist Diana BACOSI of Italy competes in the Skeet Women Finals at the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range during Day 1 of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun on April 26, 2015 in Larnaca, Cyprus. (Photo by Nicolo Zangirolami)
Italy’s Diana Bacosi won today’s Skeet Women final, Larnaca’s opening event.
The 31-year old athlete qualified for the final match with 72 hits, and then cleared the semi-final with a perfect score of 16 hits out of 16 targets. Advancing to the Gold medal match, Bacosi met and beat China’s Yu Xiumin with a score of 15 to 13 clays, missing only one target on her last station throughout the whole round.
Bacosi had already stepped atop of the ISSF world cup podium at the second world cup stage of the year in Al Ain (UAE), last March. The Italian athlete, ranked second in the world, had grabbed a Rio 2016 Olympic Quota place there, qualifying for the next Games.
“It feels great to win my second world cup Gold back to back,” said Bacosi. “It gives me a lot of self confidence in the lead up to the European Games and to the ISSF World Championship.”
“This range is beautiful, it’s the perfect place to shoot a world cup,” she continued. “But the wind can be challenging here, it hasn’t been easy to pass through the qualifications. I gave my best in the semi-final, when the wind slowed down, and I finally made it.”
The women’s Skeet Silver medal went to Yu Xiumin of the People’s Republic of China (32), while it was USA’s Morgan Craft (21) who won the Bronze medal beating the 2008 Olympic finalist Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand (28) in the Bronze medal match with a score of 15 to 13 hits, pocketing her very first ISSF world cup medal.
(L-R) Silver medalist Xiumin YU of the Peoples Republic of China, Gold medalist Diana BACOSI of Italy and Bronze medalist Morgan CRAFT of the United States of America pose with their medals after the Skeet Women Finals at the Larnaca Olympic Shooting Range during Day 1 of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun on April 26, 2015 in Larnaca, Cyprus. (Photo by Nicolo Zangirolami)
The two Rio 2016 Olympic Quota places up for grabs at today’s final went to Yu and Jiewchaloemmit, as Bacosi had already won one in Al Ain and USA has already achieved the maximum number of qualification spots in this event (2 quotas).
The next medals will be awarded tomorrow afternoon, at the Skeet Men final, scheduled to take place on the 27th of April at 17.30 (Cyprus time, EEST). The match will be broadcasted live on http://www.issf-sports.org
Nigeria rave of the moment in long distance race, Aderonke Olumudi, on Sunday in a telephone conversation with our correspondent confirmed her readiness to partake at the third edition of the annual Okpekpe 10km Road Race.
The Kogi-born athlete has been in a rich vein of form since moving to the United States of America, she recently won the 10km Women’s category of the third GE Irving Marathon race.
Olumudi, had earlier won women’s silver and bronze medals at the March 14 fifth Longview Marathon and the 21st March 13th Bearathon Marathon races both in US respectively.
“I am ready to race at the Okpekpe,” she said. “I was at the first edition of the competition, and I am ready to be the first Nigeria to win the race.
Aderonke Olumudi photo credit Aderonke Olumudi
“My target for now will be to perform well at the Lake Minneola Half Marathon billed for April 25, and hopefully take the form to Nigeria for the Okpekpe race.”
The Okpekpe 10km road race is organised by Pamodzi Sports Marketing, a leader in sports marketing, sponsorship, hospitality and Rights Acquisition business in Nigeria in conjunction with the AFN and Edo state government.
The previous editions of the race were dominated by East Africans with Kenya’s with Nigeria athletes yet to finish top five of the race.
The delegation of Nigeria Football Federation to Saturday’s 7th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals, Canada 2015, will depart from Abuja on Thursday morning.
Coach Edwin Okon, who led the Senior Women National Team, Super Falcons, to clinch a seventh African title in Namibia in October, will be joined by Team Administrator, Ruth David and Team Media Officer, Gracious Akujobi.
The Draw Ceremony for the 7th FIFA Women’s World Cup finals will be held in Canada’s capital city, Ottawa, on Saturday, with 24 finalist teams to be divided into six groups of four teams each.
Already qualified for the finals are host Canada, United States of America, Mexico, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, England, Japan, Australia, Netherlands, Germany, France, Spain, Switzerland, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Cameroon, China, Korea Republic, Thailand and New Zealand.
The last spot will be taken by the winner of the intercontinental play –off between Ecuador and Trinidad and Tobago. Both teams battled to a a scoreless first leg in Quito, with the return leg taking place at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain on Tuesday, December 2.
The finals will be staged 6th June – 5th July, 2015 in six Canadian cities, viz: Edmonton (State of Alberta), Moncton (State of New Brunswick), Montreal (State of Quebec), Vancouver (State of British Columbia), Ottawa (State of Ontario) and Winnipeg (State of Manitoba).
Nigeria has featured in all six previous editions of the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1991 (China), 1995 (Sweden), 1999 and 2003 (USA), 2007 (China) and 2011 (Germany), with a quarter final berth in 1999 the Super Falcons’ best effort so far.
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