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The
19th edition of the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi, India has
come and gone leaving different memories for different people. The
Games earlier dogged by controversies about the readiness of the host
to stage a befitting event soon fizzled out with the games eventually
turning out to be one of best organised Games in recent times.

Apart from the
fact that three Nigerian athletes tested positive for banned
substances, Team Nigeria had a wonderful outing. The trio, Damola
Osayomi, Gabriel Okon and Folashade Abugan, are currently awaiting the
IAAF verdict on the length of their respective bans.

In the midst of all
this, the country broke new marks in some sports like wrestling which
is not regarded as a stronghold, but failed to maintain a grip on some
others like boxing and table tennis.

With a compact team
competing in just seven sports, Nigeria won 11 gold, 8 silver and 14
bronze medals to finish ninth on the final medal table thus emerging as
the third best African team.

With this success
recorded, many have advocated for a proactive approach towards
preparing for the All African Games scheduled for Maputo next year and
the 2012 London Olympics.

Paul Obodoechina,
an athletics coach, who was part of the Nigerian contingent to the
first Youth Olympics held in Singapore, is pleased with our performance.

“It was a good
performance, no doubt but we must not be carried away by the success
story and fail to realise that greater challenges lie ahead. The
Commonwealth Games was supposed to be used to test our strength and
know where we currently stand but the absence of top athletes at the
games has not given us a true picture of ourselves,” he said.

In the absence of
the Commonwealth’s best athletes like Usain Bolt and Ashafa Powell,
only a handful of world class performances were on display. The men’s
100m race won by Jamaican, Lerone Clark was particularly a drab event.
This was because all seven Jamaicans who had run faster than Clark this
year, including the world’s fastest man Usain Bolt, did not come to
Delhi.

This is made more
glaring by the fact that Clark’s winning time of 10.12 seconds is the
112th fastest time in the world this year, a time slower than that run
by his countryman Don Quarrie to win gold at the 1978 Commonwealth
Games in Edmonton, Canada.

Like Victoria, like Atlanta

Despite all this,
Nigeria’s Sports Minister, believes the country can begin to hope for a
better outing at the subsequent Games coming up, most importantly the
London 2012 Olympics.

“If we were able to
achieve this level of success I wonder what would have happened if we
had prepared properly. But this does not mean that this is the way it
will continue. We will not rest on our laurels and I intend to see to
it that we build on this success by preparing properly for the London
2012 Olympics,” Bio said last week.

With the
performance in Delhi being Nigeria’s best in sixteen years, there’s a
feeling that perhaps Nigeria may go on to achieve big things at the
London Olympics in two year’s time. The feeling is premised on the fact
that in 1994 when Nigeria had its best outing to date at the games, it
went on two years later to win its first gold medal at Olympics when
Chioma Ajunwa finished in first place in Long Jump at the Atlanta
Olympic Games.

Tainted medals

Despite its good fortune in Delhi, the failed dope test of three of its athletes leaves a question mark on our medals haul.

Stripped of one
gold and two silver medals, Nigeria turned out to be the biggest
culprit on the list of countries whose athletes failed dope tests at
the games.

Coincidentally for
Nigeria, all the cases of drug use were recorded in athletics, a trend,
which Tony Urhobo, former Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN)
President, described as disturbing.

“It’s a huge
disgrace and a dent on our image. Of course it could give room for
question on how clean the other medals are,” he said.

Urhobo disagreed with the argument that some of the athletes may have taken the substance they were found guilty of in error.

“That is not true,
the athletes know what they are taking; they were only hoping that they
would not be caught which eventually they were.”

For Urhobo, sports
officials should be more concerned about warning athletes on the
dangers of using drugs rather than trying to cover up for them when
they get caught. He advised that adequate structures should be in place
for preparation to begin for the next set of games the country will be
competing in.

“The issue of drugs
and sport need to be addressed squarely, our athletes should know that
there are no short cut to success, they need to train hard to attain
the feat they desire. It is unfair where you want to win at all cost
and then take drugs to outwit others, such acts ought to condemned
totally,” he said.

Lalit Bhanot, the
secretary general of the organising committee of the Delhi Games,
called the latest set of incidents “unfortunate” and said though the
federations and the National Anti-Doping Agency had done their best,
testing athletes regularly, it was difficult to control doping if
sports people were dedicated to taking banned substances.

Over the years,
drugs and sports have gone hand-in-hand since competitive events began.
In ancient Greece, Olympic athletes would eat specially prepared meat
(including lizards), and drink magic potions to boost their
performances.

It’s no different
in modern sport, which is rife with suspicions about
performance-enhancing drug use by many top athletes. The usual suspects
are human-growth hormones (which promote physical development),
anabolic steroids (drugs that resemble testosterone and control the
metabolic rate), beta-blockers, erythropoietin, stimulants and
diuretics.

But even more
serious than the implications for fairness is the fact that many of
these drugs have severe side effects, which are not completely
understood even today. They pose genuine health risks, which go
unheeded by athletes intent on winning their events at all costs.

One athlete who
paid with his life was Danish cyclist Enemark Jensen, who lost
consciousness and fell off his bike during the 1960 Olympics in Rome,
causing his death. He was found to be under the influence of
amphetamines.

With three Nigerians currently serving bans for drug use yet to
complete their punishment and another set primed to join them, the
evils in drug use needs to be emphasised.

Not
many Nigerians know Helen Okus, Ifeoma Iheanacho and Daniel Amas. Even
among their countrymen hooked on sports, their names do not ring a
bell. Yet they are patriotic Nigerians; athletes who put their lives on
the line for their country.

Okus, Iheanacho and Amas were part of Nigeria’s wrestling team to the Commonwealth Games, which ended in India on Thursday.

For the trio it was
better they suffered some physical discomfort rather than see their
country miss a shot at glory. As the Nigerian contingent got set to
leave Delhi on Thursday, arrangement was made for Amas and Okus to
remain behind to undergo surgery before coming back to Nigeria.

Giving their all

Daniel Igali, Technical Adviser of the Nigerian wrestling team explained why they did not return with their colleagues.

“Right now Daniel
Amas lost two of his teeth in one of the matches and is staying behind
in India for surgery. The same goes for Helen Okus who wrestled all
through the tournament with a slipped disc which is a very serious
injury.

“Her right arm was
almost numb but she is staying behind for surgery while Ifeoma
Iheanacho could barely walk a day before the competition because of
fever, and I didn’t even think she was going to compete but she still
went ahead to get a bronze.

“They believe they
can give their all for the country and if anything happens to them the
country will take care of them and that is what I have learnt about
them,” added Igali, who won an Olympic gold.

“The one thing that
I have learnt from our athletes is that they give you everything,”
Igali said on Thursdayin Lagos. “The one thing that I know about our
athletes is that if you tell them to give you 100 push-ups they give
you 120. They are willing to give everything in a match.”

Tactics

Prior to the
Commonwealth Games, not many people expected the country’s wrestlers to
put up such a remarkable showing at the Games especially as the team
never had the needed international exposure leading up to the event in
India.

Besides the African
Championships in June and the World Championships, which came up in
September in Russia, our wrestlers never had any other opportunity to
prepare for the Commonwealth Games, which makes their feat in India all
the more remarkable as only the 14 medals achieved through the combined
efforts of the country’s weightlifting and power lifting teams was able
to surpass the feat of the wrestling team.

But this wouldn’t
have been possible but for some behind the scene moves by Igali, a
former Olympian who was one of 50 Nigerians honoured by the federal
government during the country’s 50th Independence celebrations.

These included
confiscating cell phones and setting curfews for the athletes, as well
as staying up long into the night to gather vital information on
opponents.

“When I see the
draws, I go on Google and You Tube to scout on the athletes they are
going to wrestle,” he said. “I don’t sleep until I get all the details
about their opponents which is usually after 3am.”

And since protests
have become a part of the sport, it became common sight to see Igali
halting matches on a number of occasions most prominently in the 96kg
Men’s Freestyle final between Sinvie Boltic and Canada’s Kory Jarvis
where he launched one of his trademark protests with just under half a
second to the end of the bout.

“You have to be
ready to take that option so that your athlete can sometimes take a
much needed break like the case of Sinvie who was already gassed out in
that fight,” Igali said. “After the protest he had 20 seconds to hang
in there and he got through and got us a gold.

“That can sometimes be the difference between winning and losing.”

Teenage sensation

There was also the
case of 17-year-old sensation Odunayo Adekuroye who prior to her bout
against Canada’s Carol Huynh, had no idea she was about to come up
against the reigning world and Olympic champion.

“She wrestled a
Canadian (Carol Huynh) in the first round and she was so confident of
beating her but narrowly lost the bout,” said Igali.

“She was inconsolable afterwards until I informed her that the person she had lost to was the world and Olympic champion.”

The effect of this
revelation was clear to see as Adekuroye went on to claim a bronze
medal after back-to-back flawless 7-0 wins over Scotland’s Fiona
Robertson in the semi finals, and South Africa’s Brumilda Leeuw in the
bronze medal match.

All down to teamwork

But Igali, who
before the Games was expecting the team to return home with 10 medals,
insists credit for the team’s success isn’t solely his but the combined
efforts of every member of the wrestling team, including his coaching
assistants.

“I will have to
give the credit to the athletes because they are the ones that actually
competed,” he said. “It’s the person who’s in the arena that the credit
should go to, then the coaches: David Onoapo, Okporu Enekpedekumo,
Tiebiri Godswill and Tony Ubaka who were with us in camp and carried
out all the programmes we had put in place for the athletes.

“I have been working with these coaches since 2007 and what we have been trying to do is to encourage total wrestling.

“The results from
this competition are what we have been imparting in the athletes for
the past three years. By the time we have more regular competitions I
think we can expect better results.”

Poor wrestling background

Only India and
Canada finished above Nigeria in the wrestling event of the
Commonwealth Games which is all the more remarkable considering that
the only wrestling championship in the 2010 calendar in Nigeria is the
championship bankrolled by the Bayelsa State government which doesn’t
come up until next month.

Such is the
pitiable state of wrestling in Nigeria. But Igali is quick to admit
that the Delhi feat would had been much more difficult to accomplish
but for the support of the National Sports Commission (NSC).

“The NSC has done
well,” Igali said. “We went to the African Championships in June and
four of our wrestlers that won gold went to the world championships in
September.

“We have a very
good relationship with the NSC, particularly with (its
director-general) Patrick Ekeji. He is someone who has been very
responsive to our needs and doesn’t mind me calling him up very late at
night.

I can call him up at two in the morning and see him at anytime of the day.

“He made it
possible for us to get the programmes that we may not had been able to
get in the past. As an example, at the 2007 All Africa Games in Algiers
we were able to go with about six coaches, but in the past we only went
with two. While in India we went with four coaches, so we are beginning
to get more recognition from the NSC.”

Besides the NSC,
the Bayelsa State government, particularly the governor, Timipre Sylva,
who has never hidden his love for the sport, had been most helpful
especially in the area of training for the athletes.

“He (Sylva) has
been very supportive of wrestling and has even promised to get a
32-seater bus for the national team,” said is Igali, who is from
Bayelsa State.

“He even came
around to see the team in training a number of times in the company of
(wrestling federation boss) Austin Edeze and urged the athletes to
bring glory to the country with a promise to reward them for every
medal they get to win in India.”

Target

The topmost
priority for Igali at the moment are next year’s All-Africa Games in
Mozambique and the World Championships in Turkey which serves as
qualifying tournaments for the London 2012 Olympics where he hopes one
of his wrestlers will finally be able to secure a medal.

But if that doesn’t
come to pass, don’t expect Igali to leave the stage for one of his
assistants to take charge as he insists he is going nowhere until a
Nigerian wrestler, wearing the country’s colours, wins an Olympic medal.

“We have quite a number of coaches in the coaching crew but I don’t
see myself leaving the scene until we win an Olympic gold medal,” he
added.

The Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India has ended and our worst fears have not come to pass.

Instead, we have
been pleasantly surprised by the feats of a contingent written off as
being incapable of doing big things on the big stage.

Eleven gold medals
from athletes who in the last two editions of the games struggled to
haul in ten golds, certainly calls for some celebration.

The performance in
Delhi confirms the belief held in many quarters within and outside
Nigeria that this country is not lacking in talent; that with the right
mix of variables in place, they will excel in the international arena.

The adventure in
Delhi is a tale of commitment and patriotism. From Daniel Igali, the
former wrestler, who as technical adviser of our wrestling team, did
not wait for funds from government before assembling his team for
camping in Bayelsa to Helen Okus who with a slipped disc still went
into battle for a bronze medal for her country, the Nigerian team in
Delhi has shown that there is still such a thing as love for one’s
country.

Two weeks ago in
this column I had paid tribute to the Nigerian athlete and held that
for the most part our successes in international sporting competitions
were achieved not because there were deliberate policies put in place
by our sports administrators to engender success but as a result of the
will to succeed by our athletes.

That cast-iron will
was on display in Delhi. Our athletes, spurned by their officials and
derided by fans as never -do wells, determined to turn the table on
their detractors and we are all better off for it.

At the risk of
sounding like a broken record, I say it again here that one of the
surest routes to Nigeria’s greatness is sports. Consider not only how
positively the performance in Delhi will rob off on our image abroad.
Consider also, how President Goodluck Jonathan, buffeted on all sides
for his political faux pas, must be relishing this moment of respite.
Without making any tangible input into this success, he must thumping
his chest in satisfaction at the performance of “our boys and girls” in
Delhi.

I hope President
Jonathan will have the grace to do what is only right – and that is to
reward the athletes and their officials in a fitting way. For if the
men and women in Abuja and other centres of political power in this
country without as much as breaking sweat appropriate sizeable chunks
of the common patrimony for themselves and their generations yet
unborn, it is only fair that those who have engaged in meaningful toil
for the fatherland should be amply rewarded particularly as they have
no other means of livelihood.

Destroying the vermin

Now that our
athletes have pointed the way and have shown just what it means to want
to die for their country, will those ‘local champions’ who have
constituted themselves into one huge millstone on the neck of Nigerian
sports, not repent of their follies?

If youngsters, who
have repeatedly given their all and have not been given back much in
return, still willingly offer themselves as vehicles for national
glory, will the men who have eviscerated Nigerian sports in the last
two decades not realise that the time has come for them to be sensible
and stop selling their fatherland for a few shekels?

Will these
quislings who are quick to take sides with international bodies against
the very country that afforded them the opportunity to get into those
organisations not realise the futility of their actions?

Clearly, the time
has come for us to begin to take a closer look at the kinds of men we
entrust with the responsibility to administer sports in this country.
It is a blight on us as a people that a few individuals will repeatedly
poke fingers into our eyes and rather than snap those fingers in two,
we whine about how powerless we are.

Can a few
individuals be greater than an entire country? Will President Jonathan
sit down and allow a few unpatriotic characters continually cast us in
the role of charlatans internationally while they profit from their
association with us at the same time.

In case our president has forgotten he has as much responsibility to
sports as he has to other sectors of our national life and he must
begin to take an interest in what happens in the sector.

At
full-time in the game against Romania on Saturday, October 9 at the
Parc De Prince, new French coach, Laurent Blanc and his players looked
very relieved to have won 2-0. Les Blues’ revolution under Blanc, who
is referred to as ‘Le Presidente’ had finally started.

Italy, France,
England are some of the football elite that have had to change or tweak
their systems in the past three months on the back of below-par
performances in South Africa. Though Nigeria cannot be grouped with the
above countries – who between them have won six World Cups, Nigeria can
be categorised as an African power.

With two Africa Cup
of Nations Cup trophies, six silver medals and the same number of
bronze medals, the Eagles have always been in or around the podium when
it comes to African football.

But Italy and
France have since moved on from not qualifying for the second round of
the World Cup by appointing new managers in Cesare Prandelli and
Laurent Blanc respectively, while Nigeria is yet to have a substantive
coach, for real planning to change players and systems to start.

In the case of
England, Fabio Capello has given the benefit of the doubt; and he is
using this second chance to bring in new, young and hungrier players
into the squad. But Nigeria is stuck with the same old players, who
have failed to improve their uninspiring performances.

Same old legs, and script

Members of the
football family in Nigeria believe that the Eagles’ last game against
Guinea in Conakry showed the true level of Nigerian football. They
contend that fans have always had an exaggerated image of Nigeria, and
that ‘small’ countries like Guinea are showing that potential is not
enough; planning, hard-work and commitment can and make the difference
between a loss and a win.

Commenting on that match, former national player and now coach of Kwara United, Kadiri Ikhana said:

“Even before this
match was played, I said each of the teams had 50 percent chance of
taking the day. The match itself – looking at the first half, the
Eagles were not so good but in the second half their game improved. We
had more chances of scoring- like 60 to their 40- but we refused to
take them. See how many goals we missed. Guinea on the other hand, took
their only chance and converted it to a goal.”

Many argue that the
outcome of the match was determined by youth, fitness and commitment
and that the Guineans rather than place premium on pedigree were more
concerned with current form. This is believed by many to be the reason
why a youngster like Kevin Constant, who scored the goal against
Nigeria, kept Guinean football greats like Ismael Bangoura and Pascal
Feindouno on the bench.

Not playing to win

“I think we did not
play as we were supposed to. There was not too much fight in the
attack. Only (Obafemi) Martins was moving forward. It was like we were
playing with just two attackers against their four defenders. Obinna
Nsofor is more of an attacker but he was playing in the midfield,” said
former Eagles player, Garba Lawal, who is at a loss about what caused
the lack of commitment.

Some analysts say
these Europe-based players know where their bread is buttered. Their
clubs pay a lot of money to be represented and that cannot be risked on
second rate pitches like the one they played on in Conakry.

“If we take a
mixture of Kano Pillars and Enyimba players they would have represented
us better. What is the makeup of this statement? The players will be
hungrier and more committed to the cause and maybe not necessarily
younger,” said Sola Aiyepeku, a football commentator.

Lawal added that
absence of Osaze Odemwingie, Mikel Obi and Dickson Etuhu in the game
against Guinea is not an excuse for the defeat.

“The likes of Osaze
were not there because they had injuries but even if they were there
the team may not have won. The team is not about anyone person,” he
said. “The way forward for the Eagles is for players to be more
committed. If they play with commitment even if they do not win, we the
people would be able to salute them and say they did their best.”

Officials culpable

Ikhana is not too worried about the loss and he believes the Eagles will qualify for Equatorial Guinea/Gabon 2012 Nations Cup.

“This is a minus
for us but I believe it would gear them up to do better in subsequent
matches. This notwithstanding, I see us qualifying for the Nations’
Cup.”

Former Eagles coach
and defender, Christian Chukwu blamed officials of the team, who are
always afraid of the consequences of a loss.

“The problem we
have is that we are afraid to lose matches, but did we not lose on
Sunday despite inviting 15 Europe-based stars for the match, which
ordinarily the home-based should have formed at least 70 per cent of
the squad?

“If we had paraded
mostly home-based players and we still lost the match, we would have
been happy that at least we are rebuilding our team,” Chukwu said.

“This is the time
to rebuild. This is the time to go in search of talented, young and
desperate home-based players, players who are hungry to prove that they
can play in the Eagles too.

“We are not
rebuilding. We can’t keep using the same players. We are overstretching
them. We need to give the home-based players the chance to prove
themselves. If we don’t play them, we won’t be able to discover new
players for the national team.”

Like Chukwu, many
believe that without a shake-up of the Super Eagles – to allow the
youth, better coaches, and administrators who understand the game plan
take the reigns, football might just end up like some other sports –
where Nigeria reigned supreme on the continent some years ago but is
now playing catch-up.

Michel Platini,
UEFA President said after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa that he
was not surprised at the composition of the first, second and third
placed teams – Spain, Holland and Germany. To Platini, success is not
achieved by coincidence.

“The countries that did well have the most youth competitions and
spend the most on training young players. It is no coincidence they
happened to do well. Investment, competition and training pays off.”

After 11 days of gruelling competition in 7 out of the 19 sports approved, Team Nigeria emerged as the ninth best team at the just concluded 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.

Amassing a total of 11 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze medals, Nigeria finished the competition as the third best African team with South Africa leading the pack and Kenya coming a close second. Nigeria was one gold medal away from clinching Africa’s top spot. The Australian team emerged champions for the umpteenth time, winning a record seventh title in a row with a total of 177 medals. For Nigeria, the feat attained in Delhi is the best for the country in recent times, second only to the 1994 Victoria Games in Canada where the country amassed 37 medals, 11 of which are Gold medals.

Bio leads team back to Nigeria

The Team Nigeria contingent will be led home today by the Sports Minister and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Ibrahim Isa Bio. They are expected to arrive at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, at 7.00pm local time. When the team left for Delhi, India last month, nobody gave them a chance, with some bookmakers writing them off, and posited that they will not win anything. The bookmakers were proven wrong from day one when Nigeria won the first gold medal of the games. The success story continued from that day with the team winning on the average, a gold medal for every day of the 11 day fiesta. Nigeria won medals in weightlifting, power lifting, wrestling and athletics.

Speaking on the team success in Delhi, leader of the delegation to games, Bio, attributed the contingent’s success to the backing the sports commission got from President Goodluck Jonathan “The president is our number one supporter, he not only gave financial backing, he also supported as a fan, his words of encouragement and advises contributed immensely to our good outing in Delhi,” he said.

Already, the athletes are already getting the reward for the hard work in India with the Sports Commission doling out monies as a means of appreciating the athletes. Each gold medallist pocketed the sum $6, 800, while the silver medallists were given $3, 800 and bronze medallists $2, 500. Bio also said he was very impressed with the way and manner athletes and most officials had conducted themselves despite the challenges. “We were only able to pay the athletes their allowances this week but in spite of this there were no incidents of indiscipline amongst them, rather they faced their main goal of doing well at the Games,” he said. “And they can attest to it that immediately the money came we handed it out”

Closing ceremony

As the curtains were drawn on the 19th Commonwealth Games, the impressive closing ceremony, held on Thursday, will be remembered by people who love the traditional dance and art forms of India. One of the special features of the ceremony was ‘Agni’ or, the fire. Presented at the outset of the ceremony, ‘Agni’ displayed a matchless confluence of martial art forms from different parts of the country. About 800 performers displayed the best of their states through traditional martial art in a conflagration of light and sound to hundreds of drum beats.

Kerala’s Kalaripayatt, Manipur’s Thang Ta, Punjab’s Gatka, Silambam from Tamil Nadu, Gujarat’s Talwaar Raas and Naga Warriors with their machetes came together in a high-intensity eight-minute performance. There were all sorts of swords, sticks and spears, and spectators were reminded of India’s martial art traditions dating back many centuries. The next edition of the Commonwealth Games will be staged in Glasgow, United Kingdom in 2014.

These
are surely not the best of times for Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney
who has locked himself on a collision course with his manager, Alex
Ferguson on the gaffer’s injury claims. Rooney has come out publicly to
refute claims by Ferguson that the England man is not fully fit and is
suffering from an ankle injury.

United fans will be
hoping that this incident does not follow the paths of David Beckham,
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, who had such encounters and were eventually sold.
As the new boys of West Brom come calling, it will be pertinent to see
whether Rooney will start or be benched. “During the World Cup I
trained in every session and had no problems fitness wise,” said
Rooney. “I’ve been training for the last two months. I haven’t missed a
training session. So I’ve got no problems with my fitness.”

Ferguson’s ego at stake

If he is benched,
then there might problems in Ferguson’s relationship with United’s
highest goal scorer for last season. Owen Hargreaves could make his
long-awaited return from a two-year injury on Saturday. West Brom are
however on a roll; and after defeating Arsenal at the Emirates, what
better ground to test the new found status. They sit sixth, and Coach
Roberto Di Matteo has called on his players to use the Emirates’
triumph to boost their confidence ahead of Saturday’s game. Nigerian
player, Osaze Odemwingie, September’s player of the month, and the
team’s creative fulcrum, Jerome Thomas, are both battling to be fit for
the trip to Old Trafford.

In three trips to
the ‘Big 4’, of Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal – they have lost two and
won one. Di Matteo also added that: “Is the Arsenal win going to change
our attitude? No, because the attitude has always been very good, very
positive and very committed from the players’ point of view. But it’s
another game and we treat it like one single game, and then we’ll think
about the next one after that.” Di Matteo was unbeaten in the three
top-flight occasions he played at the Theatre of Dreams for Chelsea;
winning 2-1 on his first visit there and drawing 1-1 and 3-3.

Another Chelsea trip to Villa Park

Villa Park is not
one of the grounds that holds fond memories for Chelsea, especially the
departed Jose Mourinho, whose days as manager of Chelsea got short
circuited at Villa Park. Last season, Chelsea were defeated 2-1, even
though they scored first. One player hoping the status quo stays is a
former Blues’ player, Steve Sidwell, and he is counting on the fans to
raise the roof as they welcome the defending champions. “It’s going to
be a tough game,” he said. “They are doing really well but we have got
a good record against them apart from last year away. Hopefully we can
put that to one side and go into it confident and get a result. I
personally think they will win the league. The way they have started
this year and on the evidence shown they should do really well but it’s
a long season and a lot of ups and downs happen. At home the fans are
great, especially against the big teams. They really do get behind the
players, which is really important because sometimes when it’s 0-0, or
if you’re 1-0 down, when you need that extra push, it does come from
the fans.” There are injury concerns for John Terry for Chelsea and
Ashley Young for Aston Villa.

Wilshere hopes Arsenal will remain focussed

When Arsenal lost
last season in the league, they lost in pairs. This season, they have
lost to West Brom and Chelsea in successive match days so it should be
safe to assume that the Gunners will be getting a victory over
Birmingham on Saturday. Arsene Wenger will be glad that he can call on
the return of the duo of Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott. Birmingham
City have looked solid defensively, apart from their loss to Everton,
and will seek to put up a similarly well organised defence like West
Brom and hope to catch the Gunners on the break.

Youngster, Jack
Wilshere, hopes that Arsenal will be patient in breaking up teams that
set up ultra defensively and keep their shape. “Teams come to Arsenal
and hope to catch us on the counter-attack,” he said. “It worked that
day (against West Brom) and we have to learn from that day. We have to
show we can deal with that and get a result on Saturday. I think we
learned from it straight after because we went out to Serbia and got a
good win and then we played well against Chelsea. So I think we learned
from it and hopefully we can get a result against Birmingham. It’s an
important game because you have to get three points in every game.” The
three points are very important if they are not to be set adrift from
the top of the table.

Villa may miss Valencia match

The $40 million buy
from Valencia, David Villa, is a major doubt for Saturday’s game
against Valencia as he sustained a knee injury on duty for Spain
against Scotland on Tuesday. Villa scored a record breaking 45th goal
for Spain in the match against Scotland, taking him above Raul Gonzalez
in the all-time record books.

Xavi has been told
that he will take no part in the match against the league leaders on
Saturday. Xavi’s poise in possession and creation of chances for the
strikers was clearly missing in the last match at the Nou Camp, where
with 78% possession, Mallorca ran away with a 1-1 draw. Xavi has had an
Achilles tendon problem and has been missing from the Barcelona lineup
since the end of September.

Barcelona doctor,
Dr. Cugat said: “Xavi is getting better and better, so that one side
does not have any pain and the other still has a little bit. He wants
to play on Saturday, but I have told him he has to wait a bit because
he still has trouble on the other side. It is too early for him to
play.”

Valencia winger,
Joaquin Sanchez, is also set to be sidelined with a damaged left ankle
and it is estimated that he will be out for ten to 15 days. Valencia
are top of the Primera Division with 16 points from a possible 18,
three more than fourth-placed Catalan side.

In
a bid to promote the game of rugby at the grassroots, the Nigeria Rugby
Football Federation (NRFF) had an official launch of the iTry Rugby
Cluster Programme.

The Programme, an
initiative of the NRFF, in conjunction with Promasidor Nigeria, makers
of Cowbell Milk, is meant to create awareness of rugby among children.
According to Akin Akintola, the Chief Operating Officer of the NRFF,
“The iTry Rugby Cluster Programme is in essence an outreach programme
that wants to embrace schools. We want rugby to be part of the
secondary school curriculum. The need for sustainability and continuity
in rugby was what brought about the emergence of the programme.”

A continuous project

Children from about
30 schools turned up for the occasion, which took place on Wednesday at
the Tafawa Balewa Cricket Oval in Lagos. The children, picked from
Junior Secondary School One, were visibly excited to be there. They are
going to be the first set to be participating in the Cluster Programme.
According to Kayode Oguntayo, Vice President of NRFF: “The programme is
meant to be an ongoing thing. After this year, we would start with
another set of JSS 1 students until the all the classes now have teams.
This way we are assured that there would be a continuous stream of
students playing rugby.”

The children will
be trained to play Rugby 7’s, which is a formation of the game. In it
each of the teams would have seven players squaring up on each side.
According to Fola Odetoyinbo, NRFF Head of Youth Development, the
reason for this is that Rugby 7’s is less complicated and easier to
learn than other variants. “Come 2011, we hope to carry this to other
parts of the country but we would start from Kwara, then Kaduna and on
and on till we are able to have the programme in schools all over the
country,” he said.

Odetoyinbo also stated that to make the scheme a sustainable one, a
number of investments had been made. “Twelve coaches have been
accredited following completion of a comprehensive International Rugby
Board (IRB) training program,” he said. “Each coach will be given a
package including track suit, rugby shirts, training cones, balls,
pumps, stop watch and a laptop to enable them train the students at
their designated schools.” Also at the launch each of the schools were
given kits for the students, balls and pumps. The coaches have been
assigned to schools and training is expected to begin next week.

World
mountain running champion, Andrea Mayr, looks set to be the firm
favourite for the women’s event at upcoming Obudu International
Mountain Race judging by her form this season.

The Austrian-born
Mayr, who clocked 31 today, won the 2008 women’s race ahead of more
established runners, including Ethiopia’s Mestawet Tufa, setting in the
process a new course record of 51:14minutes. Mayr, who also competes in
marathon and cycling events, however failed to defend her title at last
year’s race after sustaining a fracture in a cycling accident in her
home town of Wels. In Mayr’s absence, Ethiopia’s Mamitu Daska won the
women’s race, shattering the course record with a run of 49:12 minutes.
But she has made known her intentions to reclaim the women’s title come
November 27 in Obudu, Cross River state after emerging winner of the
26th World Mountain Running Championship which came up last month in
Kanmik, Slovenia where she beat her nearest rival Italy’s Valentina
Belotti by over half a minute.

In addition to her
victory in Slovenia, Mayr added the World Mountain Running Association
(WMRA) Grand Prix title to her 2010 collections to further cement her
status as the world’s top female mountain runner with her most recent
success arriving at the start of October at the 31st Smarca Gora Race
in Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital. The Austrian, who has been
undefeated all through the season, led the field from the start to the
finish in Smarca and crossed the line in 48:48 minutes, about 2:31
minutes before second-place finisher, Antonella Confortola-Wyatt from
Italy (51:09). In the process, Mayr, who represented Austria in the
3000 metres steeplechase at both the 2005 and 2007 World Athletics
Championships, garnered 340 points to emerge the overall WMRA Grand
Prix winner for 2010 and showed once again why she is the overwhelming
favourite to reclaim the Obudu title.

Ready for Obudu

Mayr has already
confirmed her readiness to return for the sixth edition of the Obudu
International Mountain Race as she informed William Archibong, the
Chairman of the Local Organising Committee for the November 27 race, in
an e-mail, that the desire to make a big return for this year’s race
spurred her into giving a 100% performance in Kanmik and Ljubljana.

The Obudu
international mountain race is organized by the Cross River State
Government, in conjunction with the Athletic Federation of Nigeria
(AFN). It enjoys tremendous support from the African Athletics
Confederation (CAA), the WMRA, and the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF). The race covers a distance of 11
kilometres uphill to an altitude of 1,575 metres above sea level and is
the richest mountain running event in the world.

The total prize money for this year’s edition has been increased
from $245,500 to $278,000 due to the addition of the African Nations
Championship for women. The prize money for the first to the 10th
position for this year’s race however remain the same with the winners
in each gender category going home with $50,000 each while $20,000 and
$9,000 respectively will go to the second and third placed finishers.
The prizes for 4th -10th placed finishers in each category also remains
at $4,500, $4,000, $3,000, $2,500, $2,000, $1,500 and $1,000
respectively.

World
number one and top seed, Rafa Nadal, suffered a surprise 6-1 3-6 6-3
defeat by 13th seed Juergen Melzer of Austria in the third round of the
Shanghai Masters on Thursday.

Nadal, who won the
Tokyo Open on Sunday and was playing in his third back-back tournament,
had never lost a set to Melzer in their three previous meetings. “This
isn’t a surprise for me. I didn’t play well. I felt slow on court and I
made more mistakes than usual,” the Spaniard told reporters. “In
general, I am a little bit more tired than usual, physically and
mentally. You can’t expect to win every week. All the good work is done
for me for the year.”

But world number
two Novak Djokovic hammered home his intent of winning back-to-back
titles with a 6-1 6-1 victory over France’s Richard Gasquet to reach
the last eight of the Shanghai Masters on Thursday. Britain’s Andy
Murray secured his place at the ATP season-ender in London next month
with a routine 6-3 6-4 win over another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy,
following a recent dip in form. “I didn’t get broken today. I served a
lot into his forehand and varied the serve, which helped,” said Murray,
who lost in the quarter-finals of the China Open last week.

The fourth seed will next meet France’s Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, who
celebrated wildly after beating German Florian Mayer 7-5 6-3. Serb
Djokovic produced a scorching display against Gasquet that was likely
to be watched closely by the other top seeds including Rafa Nadal and
Roger Federer who play later. “I did really well from the start. I put
pressure on him. I was aggressive and I knew I had to be,” said the
U.S. Open runner-up who secured his 18th career title at the China Open
on Monday. Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez also advanced after beating
seventh seed Czech Tomas Berdych 7-6 6-3.

Nigeria
has never won a medal in wrestling at the Olympic Games, but the
technical adviser of the country’s wrestling team, Daniel Igali, is
confident a wrestler in Nigerian colours will get to achieve that at
the London 2012 Olympics.

Nigerian-born Igali
actually won a gold medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney,
Australia; but achieved it in the colours of his adopted country,
Canada. He now wants a wrestler in Nigerian colours to follow suite at
the next Olympic Games in London following the impressive performance
posted by the country’s team to the just concluded Commonwealth Games
in New Delhi, India. Nigeria finished third overall in the wrestling
event behind the hosts and Canada with a total of 13 medals, including
three gold medals – one respectively in the men’s Freestyle and
Greco-Roman events by the duo of Sinvie Boltic and Efionayi
Agbonavbare, as well as Ifeoma Nwoye’s gold one in the women’s
freestyle.

The prophesy

Only the 14 medals
achieved through the combined efforts of the Nigerian weightlifting and
powerlifting teams was able to surpass the feat of the wrestling team;
and Igali can’t see anything stopping his wrestlers from climbing the
podium at the London Games. “What happened at this Commonwealth Games
is a foreshadowing of what is going to happen in the near future
because I can tell you right now that we will win medals at the
Olympics,” he said. “It does not matter the problems we will get to
encounter along the way because I have taken it upon myself to lead
these athletes to a successful Olympics. Even if I have to get the
athletes to live in my house in order to achieve this, I will do that
because I know what it takes and I am going to do everything to make it
happen. I am so sure that come 2012, I don’t care what it takes, that
we will be on the podium and wrestling will bring glory to Nigeria.”