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I
avoid controversies as much as possible. But once in a while, one gets
entangled in it. I must confess, however, that I expected a couple of
reactions after the first part of my write-up about the Dove Golden Belt
boxing tournament was published last week.

It was a few minutes
before the European Champions league match started when my phone rang.
The caller did not even respond to my ‘Yes, who is this?’ before he
threw his punches. “You see how you people behave…? What has Segun
Odegbami got to do with boxing? Is boxing the same as football? You also
mentioned one Herbert Orji. Who is he and what has he got to do with
boxing? Instead of inviting people like…(names withheld) to talk about
boxing, and you say you are trying to save Nigerian sports.” I tried to
respond, but the punches kept coming. “And what sort of standard are you
talking about, when such a championship did not take place in Lagos,
Abuja or other major city?”

After about four
minutes, he paused and asked if I was still with him. It was at this
point that I was able to ask his identity and all he said was ‘Duke’. I
asked if I could respond to some of the issues raised but he was not
going to have any of that, and the conversation stopped, abruptly, just
like it started.

I felt slightly
uncomfortable, but took consolation in the fact that I had received
numerous text messages and a couple of phone calls, congratulating me on
the success of the tournament. Of particular interest is the e-mail I
received from a Nigerian ex-boxer, now residing in Jamaica. But I
realised there may be several ‘Dukes’ to be dealt with. According to the
American essayist and psychologist, Og Mandino, I will love the light
because it shows me the way, yet, I will endure the darkness, because it
shows me the stars. This is why I will never be easily upset by certain
incidents any more.

I called Duke the
following day for a conversation and am glad to mention that we are now
very good friends. I explained to him that Segun Odegbami and Herbert
Orji were two of the four speakers invited to deliver papers at the
pre-tournament summit, which took place a day before the boxing
tournament proper. Duke’s answer was positive when I asked if he
believes in God and I told him the title of Odegbami’s paper is ‘God is a
sportsman’ and that if only Nigerians – especially our so-called sports
administrators, retired/active sports persons, sports writers,
supporters, etc, would adhere to the rules of sports as stipulated by
God Almighty, Nigeria would dominate the world of sports. Odegbami’s
paper was a classic.

Herbert Orji started
boxing in 1962 at the age of 10. He reached the finals of the Steve
Jaffta Cup boxing competition in 1965, in Enugu. He was a light and
welterweight champion, who successfully, like Odegbami, combined sports
with education, and today is a professor. His paper was titled ‘A Sharp
Mind in a Quick Body’. A very juicy paper recommended for every Nigerian
athlete and coach.

I also explained to
Duke that four luxury buses were deployed to convey participants –
especially grassroots boxers, coaches and boxing club owners – from
Abeokuta, Ijebu Ode and Lagos, to and from the Redemption Camp, free of
charge, for two days. That the boxers who fought during the tournament
and their coaches were accommodated (free of charge) in guest houses on
the Redemption Camp for four days and given a feeding allowance of a
thousand naira daily. Apart from the fact that all the boxers were
issued with branded kits, including gowns, for the first time in the
history of grassroots amateur boxing in Nigeria, all the participating
boxers smiled home with cash awards. Those who did not win their bouts
were given N15, 000 each. Four of the winners received N25, 000 each,
while the most outstanding boxers went home with N250, 000, N350, 000
and N450, 000 cash awards. All the boxers, coaches, officials and media
organisations that participated in the programme were issued with
certificates of active participation.

I told Duke that Obisia Nwankpa, ‘Golden Gloves’, could not hide his
feelings when he entered the fully air-conditioned, well-lit Youth
Centre of the Redemption Camp, venue of the tournament. He said,
‘Wonderful, I feel like I am in Europe or the USA.’ I also remember very
vividly that as I ushered Segun Odegbami into the hall, he stopped and
exclaimed, ‘What are you people trying to do?’ and I quipped, ‘Trying to
prove that God is a sportsman.’ He looked around, apparently saw the
boxing ring in the centre of the hall, heard the superb quality of the
sound emanating from the loud speakers, also saw the two giant viewing
screens and said, ‘Wonderful’, to which I jokingly retorted,
‘twoderful’.

Robert
Helenius is confident of securing a knockout victory over Samuel Peter
when he gets into the ring with the Nigerian on April 2 in Germany.

The Finnish-born
Helenius made this assertion over the weekend during a telephone
interview with ‘On the Ropes Boxing Radio Show.’ “I’m going to knock Sam
Peter out. That’s the way. I don’t know which round but it’s going to
be a good fight,” replied Helenius after he was asked for his official
prediction regarding the bout.

The 27-year-old
Helenius, also known as the Nordic Nightmare, is unbeaten in his 14
professional fights to date, and has won nine of those bouts through
knockouts, including eight of his last nine.

With his six feet,
six inches frame, Helenius could prove more than a handful for the
shorter Peter who has always found it tough when coming up against much
taller adversaries with his fights against the Klitschko brothers,
Wladimir and Vitali, readily coming to mind.

Size advantage

In those fights
against the Klitschkos, Peter was always kept at bay by the longer reach
of the Ukrainians. And that appears to be the game plan of Helenius,
the unbeaten World Boxing Organisation Intercontinental champion.

“I’m taller, I can keep him at a distance, I’m faster, and I can easily go twelve rounds with him,” continued Helenius.

He added: “I just
have to do my own work like I always do to keep him at a distance and
just explode with my right from long distance. It’s going to work every
time.”

Helenius sent
shockwaves through the boxing world in 2010 with a number of impressive
wins, including an eighth round knockout victory over former world
champion Lamon Brewster, which to date, remains his biggest win.

That could, however,
change for Helenius after April 2, that is if he ends up securing a win
over the Nigerian Nightmare, also a former world champion.

Asked if Peter will
be the toughest opponent he has ever been in the ring with, Helenius
replied: “Yeah of course. We are going for the gold of course. We have
to get better and better opponents all the time and climb the rankings.”

He added: “I haven’t followed him that much because I have so much
going on with my own career. He beat some really good guys and fought
really good against Klitschko and stuff like that so he’s going to be a
tough opponent, but I feel I’m ready.”

Chelsea’s
billionaire owner, Roman Abramovich, will help rebuild an indoor arena
in Volgograd to enable Russian pole vaulter, Yelena Isinbayeva, train in
her home city, the country’s athletics chief told Reuters.

Valentin
Balakhnichyov said the Olympic champion and world record holder had met
Abramovich in Zurich in December when they were part of Russia’s
delegation bidding to win the right to host the 2018 soccer World Cup.
“I know that Yelena had asked for help to fix an indoor arena in
Volgograd,” Balakhnichyov said on Monday. “The problem is it gets quite
cold inside the arena in the winter, making it very difficult to train.
Also, the running track is quite old and needs to be replaced.”

Abramovich’s
spokesman John Mann confirmed the report: “Yes, it’s true that Yelena
has approached Roman for help and the talks are ongoing,” he told
reuters.

Isinbayeva’s decision

Isinbayeva’s
decision to return to Volgograd from her base in Italy should speed up
the process, Balakhnichyov said. “I was quite surprised how smoothly the
talks have gone,” he said. “I know that Abramovich had already asked
his people to find out what has to be done and how much it would cost.
Hopefully, the work could be completed over the summer.”

This month,
Isinbayeva made headlines in Russia when she decided to leave coach
Vitaly Petrov and return to her former mentor Yevgeny Trofimov following
a series of poor performances in the last two years. “Rebuilding the
Volgograd arena should help not only Isinbayeva but all other athletes
who train there,” Balakhnichyov said. “As you know in Volgograd we have
not one but three Olympic champions in athletics: Isinbayeva, (long and
triple jumper) Tatyana Lebedeva and (high jumper) Yelena Slesarenko. And
we have many others who may follow in their footsteps.”

He added that the sports ministry would share the cost. “We also have
athletes from the local youth sports academy who regularly train there,
so (the) ministry will also get involved.”

Athletes will be running for their share of the N2m prize money on offer in the Integrity Marathon this Sunday, in Ibadan. .

The race organised
by Splash FM and the Independent Corrupt Practices (and other related
offences) Commission (ICPC), is put together to involve sportsmen in the
fight against corruption.

The race, which
first held in 2009,remains the only full marathon race in the country,
with the runners expected to cover a distance of 42km.

The designated routes for the race according to the organisers are the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ring road-Dugbe road.

Spokesperson for the
organisers, Shina Alawode disclosed that athletes and officials are
expected to start arriving Ibadan on Thursday to familiarise themselves
with the routes while also adding that the race will be flagged off at
7am by the Sports Minister, Taoheed Adedoja.

He confirmed that over 700 runners in the male and female categories have registered for the race.

“All the logistics
have been put in place and there is the likelihood that more runners
will register before (Sunday) March 27. We have secured two hospitals
for emergency even though we don’t pray for any disaster,” he said.

Alawode also
dismissed rumours that the Ibadan marathon will from 2012 be upgraded to
an international event, with athletes from Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco and
other nations expected.

“What we are doing
now is to help our athletes improve their status; we understand the
passion of our people to see the likes of Haile Gerbressalisee, Martin
Lel, Paula Radcliffe and other top marathoners and this will be possible
when we have a corporate sponsor”.

Meanwhile, Bayo
Akande, the man behind the race has promised to continue to lend his
support to the annual event. An elated Akande said the idea is to flush
out corruption, which has affected every sector of the country including
sports.

“This race is designed to kick against corruption, we sports people
must come together to tackle corruption and that’s why it’s being staged
with the ICPC,” he said

The
national women’s team, Super Falcons, will play their 2012 Olympic Games
qualifying match against Namibia at the National Stadium, Abuja on
Sunday, 3rd April.

Assistant General
Secretary (Competitions) of the Nigeria Football Federation, Mohammed
Sanusi, said on Monday that the Federation had already communicated the
venue and date of match to world football governing body, FIFA.

“The match is an
Olympics qualifier and we had to communicate early enough to the world
football governing body on date and venue,” he said. “The match will be
played at the National Stadium, Abuja on Sunday, 3rd April.”

The Super Falcons,
reigning champions of Africa, have been training in Abuja ahead of the
two-leg fixture, with the second leg coming up in Windhoek mid-April.
Namibia overpowered Angola on aggregate in the earlier round while the
Falcons were drew bye following the withdrawal of Congo.

Super
Eagles first-choice goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama will not be in goal
when Nigeria takes on Ethiopia on Sunday no thanks to an ankle injury.

Enyeama, the
reigning Nigerian Footballer of the Year, picked up the injury while on
duty for his Israeli club Hapoel Tel Aviv, and was not in goal when the
Reds came back from three goals down to draw 3-3 at Ashdod SC on Sunday
night, with former Chelsea teenage star, Ben Sahar scoring a dramatic
equalizer in the 90th minute.

Media officer of the
Nigeria Football Federation, Ademola Olajire, disclosed that Enyeama
sent word to Super Eagles boss, Samson Siasia at the weekend that he was
down with the injury which he had been helping with injections.

Olajire also
disclosed that the medical crew of the Israeli club have told Enyeama to
rest the ankle and not risk aggravating it by featuring for the Super
Eagles against the Walya Antelopes in Sunday’s Africa Cup of Nations
qualifier scheduled for Abuja.

The national team’s
training camp opened officially yesterday with the arrival of invited
players at the team’s Transcorp Hilton Hotel base.

Amongst the early
arrivals are the Nigerian-based Chibuzor Okonkwo and Julius Ubido, both
of Heartland, as well as Sunday Rotimi, the Dolphins goalkeeper who now
takes the spot left open as a result of Enyeama’s injury.

Also in camp are the
Uche brothers; Kalu and Ikechukwu, Peter Utaka, Obinna Nsofor, former
Nigerian Premier League top scorer, Ahmed Musa and Inter Milan wonderkid
Joel Obi, who made his Super Eagles debut in last month’s 2-1 win over
Sierra Leone.

A further 13 players
are scheduled to hit the team’s camp on Tuesday. They include Israel
based goalkeeper Dele Aiyenugba, who is likely to be in goal on Sunday,
Obafemi Martins, Osaze Odemwingie, Joseph Yobo, Mikel Obi and Taye
Taiwo.

Others are Victor
Anichebe, Olubayo Adefemi, Solomon Okoronkwo, Efe Ambrose and former
Warri Wolves star Fengor Ogude, who now plays for Norwegian top flight
club Valerenga.

Also expected in camp today is England based forward, Victor Moses who is a late call-up for the game against the East Africans.

The 20-year-old Wigan Athletic player will be hoping to make his
debut appearance for his country of birth even though he has already
featured for both the under 17 and under 21 sides of his adopted
country, England.

After
putting up a splendid display for the Super Eagles in his debut
appearance against the Leone stars last February, and scoring one of the
two goals on the night, Warri Wolves striker, Ekigho Ehiosun, has been
drafted to join the National U-23 team.

The team is
currently preparing for the2012 Olympic Games qualifying match against
Equatorial Guinea, slated for the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on Saturday,
March 26.

Head Coach, Austin
Eguavoen, welcomed Ehiosun and AC Milan’s Nnamdi Oduamadi, who were
initially invited to the Super Eagles camp by Samson Siasia but were
yesterday released to help the U-23 side in their quest to get one of
the three tickets allocated to the continent. All the foreign-based
players invited to the camp of the national U-23 team by Eguavoen are
expected in Benin City today ahead of a friendly match against Insurance
FC of Benin.

The 12 players will
join up with 18 domestic League players as preparation intensifies for
Saturday’s must win encounter. Among the foreign based players called up
by the former Super Eagles’ skipper are former U-17 World Cup winning
captain, Haruna Lukman, U-20 World Cup captain, Jude Ighalo, Nosakhare
Igiebor, Nurudeen Orelesi, Ibok Edet, Dele Ajiboye, Obiora Nwankwo,
Chukwuma Akabueze, Rabiu Ibrahim, Ganiyu Oseni and Danny Uchechi.

Asian Football
Confederation chief, Mohamed Bin Hammam, has rejected claims his
candidacy for FIFA president could split soccer’s governing body and
said, on Saturday, he expected a clean fight with Sepp Blatter.

The 61-year-old
Qatari was responding to comments by German World Cup winner and
outgoing FIFA executive committee member, Franz Beckenbauer, that his
bid to unseat Blatter was “dangerous” and put the ruling body’s unity
at risk. Bin Hammam, who is credited with reforming the fledgling Asian
game and helping to secure the 2022 World Cup for Qatar, threw his hat
into the ring Friday, saying it was time for changes at FIFA after 13
unbroken years under Blatter, 75.

“I am a huge fan of
Franz Beckenbauer,” he said. “He is a football legend, one of my
favourite people in life. But why should FIFA split if two candidates
are running for the president? I always respect my competitors.
President Blatter is a colleague and friend. I won’t create or
encourage any environment that will divide the football family.”

Bin Hammam was
speaking in Bangkok where a workshop involving executives of the major
Asian leagues was being held. A restructuring of FIFA’s executive
committee, more transparency, increased funding for national
federations and introduction of goal-line technology are among his
plans if he wins the presidential vote at the FIFA Congress on June 1.

Focus on fans

Bin Hammam said he
had sufficient time to rally federations behind his campaign and his
proposals were as much about improving the game for the fans as they
were about winning votes. “It’s not about us, it’s about football and
the fans, we direct football on their behalf,” he said. “This is our
focus, they are important to us. Public opinion about how we are
working and conducting our business is very important.” Bin Hammam said
his campaign would be his last project in soccer before retiring.

Blatter and Bin
Hammam were once close friends and the influential Qatari was a major
boon for the Swiss veteran’s earlier presidential campaigns but their
relationship has soured in recent years. Despite his soft tone, urbane
demeanour and abundant charisma, Bin Hammam is a political battler and
will expect a fierce fight with Blatter. The Asian soccer boss has been
there before. He narrowly survived a move to unseat him in 2008 by a
barely known Bahraini royal, Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa.

The campaign was acrimonious and fraught with mud-slinging and
jibes, hidden behind smiles and pledges of fair play and respect. Bin
Hammam said he was confident his FIFA campaign would be different. “I
pray we can conduct a fair competition, from all the aspects, if the
competition runs fairly,” he said. “A fair decision will satisfy me and
it will satisfy Mr Blatter.”

World number three,
Novak Djokovic, beat Roger Federer, world number two on Saturday to
confirm that he now knows the Swiss’ number. The Serb has now defeated
Federer three times this year and remains unbeaten on the tour where he
has now played 19 matches without any loss. Federer lost his composure
and the match 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 and with that loss, the Swiss master will
lose his second place ranking to the Serb when ATP Tour rankings are
released today.

Djokovic said on
atptour.com that he expects to beat Nadal. “I have played Nadal many
times, and many times in the late stages of the tournaments, especially
in the semis and finals of the major events. I know how it feels like
to be in the big stand or how it feels like to play him, so I will be
prepared. I want this trophy as much as he wants it, so we’ll both step
into the court tomorrow wanting that win.”

Djokovic had lost
just 12 games total en route to the semi-finals, the fewest by a player
at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament after four matches.
Federer had also reached the semi-finals without the loss of a set.
Federer has now lost to Djokovic in two consecutive semi final matches
and the former world number one bemoaned another lost chance as all
three of Federer’s losses this season have come against the Serb.

Bright side

But Federer added
that he was pleased that he was losing to top ranked players and not
players rated 50 and below. “I don’t know if I’d rather lose against
three multiple different guys ranked outside of the top 50. I guess
not. I’d rather lose against a guy that’s ranked very high so I know
I’m controlling the rest of the field against top guys. If I’m playing
well, I know I can beat them, too. So that’s what it is. At the end of
the day I can’t change it, and I’m happy with my game.”

“I had my chances
today in the singles. I thought it was a good match, played at a high
level. I know I wasn’t far away at all today, because I really had him
going. But look, I guess he escaped. I guess confidence is a big thing
for him at the moment. I’m sure it’s gonna be a good final tomorrow,”
he added, referring to the final match that will be between Djokovic
and Nadal.

Djokovic is pursuing his third title of the season, after winning the Australian Open and his 20th tour-level title in Dubai.

The 23rd Nigerian
Universities Games Association (NUGA) Games kicked off on Sunday at the
Sports Complex of the University of Benin after a six months delay.

President Goodluck
Jonathan, who was represented at the opening ceremony by the Director
of Human Resources, Federal Ministry of Education, David Momodu, called
on sports administrators to use the event as a preparation to select
athletes for the 2012 London Olympics. The president expressed optimism
that the games should bring out a “keen and thrilling competition,
replete with new records that will signal a sports renaissance in
Nigeria.”

According to him,
sports activities have become a veritable tool for infrastructural
development and not just for the physical and mind development of
competitors. “Some of the most popular personalities in the world today
are sportsmen and women or personalities involved in some way in the
administration of sports,” he said.

“The 23rd NUGA
Games to my mind could not have come at a more opportune time as it
signals the formal beginning of our preparations for the 2012 Olympic
Games in London and several other international competitions. In this
connection, I am happy to note that our National Sports Festival will
be coming up shortly to be closely followed by the West African
Universities Games. I therefore call on all competitors to take the
games seriously as success may mark a new trajectory in their lives.”

In this edition, there would be fifteen events with 84 universities
across the country participating. The host school, University of Benin,
came to the games with the largest contingent of 280. The Federal
University of Technology, Minna, and the host school opened the games
with a foot ball match.