Nigeria Content Online

The President of
the Nigeria Hockey Federation (NHF), Patrick Ukah, has commended
Heartland Female Hockey team for emerging champions in the just
concluded Africa Cup of Club Championship held in Accra, Ghana.

Heartland put up a
disciplined challenge to win their fifth title as they defeated
Extinguishers of Ghana 3-2 on the final day of competition to reclaim
the crown they had lost last year.

“It is a good way
to round off the year” he said, “you would agree that the year 2010 was
a good one for hockey, we had the NEI National League, which was a huge
success and our teams have also given a good account of themselves
amongst their peers in the continent,” he said.

Playing in front of
a home crowd, Extinguishers started the ladies final clash on a
confident note and surged into the lead through the incredible stick
work of leading scorer, Rachael Bamfo in the 19th minute.

Heartland equalised in the 38th minute from a well converted penalty corner by Justina Onyadum.

Extinguishers were
to recover their lead in the 57th minute when Ramatu Abass scored from
a penalty stroke but it was not for long. Heartland’s equaliser came
two minutes later through a field goal by Chinyere Nnanna. The next
nine minutes produced an uncompromising duel between the sides until
Christiana Bulus struck home the match winner from a penalty corner in
the sixty-eighth minute.

Double defeat

Hoping to
compensate their teeming fans with the bronze medal, another Ghana
side, Reformers broke Ghanaian hearts in the battle for bronze. They
lost to another Nigerian side, Yobe Queens.

The two sides had
earlier drawn a blank in seventy laborious minutes, during which very
few chances were created. An extra fifteen minutes of play still failed
to break the deadlock as both teams remained sluggish in attack.

In the end, it came
down to a ‘sudden death’ situation leading to the seventh round of
penalty strokes. No amount of wishing away by fans of Reformers could
deny Yobe Queens a win. Conscientiously, Ahmed Asabe pushed home Yobe’s
last stroke and they broke into wild cheers with the bronze medal
firmly in their grip.

In the male event,
Nigeria’s representatives, Niger Flickers and Yobe Flickers were
however nowhere to be found as Egyptian giants Sharkia beat Ghana’s
Trustees 4-1 to lift the trophy for an unprecedented 19th time.

Niger and Yobe finished at the bottom of table the following disappointing losses.