CWG: Igoche, SWAN hail Falconets, Team Nigeria’s performance

Nigeria Women's relay team at 2022 Commonwealth Games.

A basketball stakeholder, Mr Mark Igoche, has commended the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare on the feat achieved by team Nigeria at the just-ended 2022 Commonwealth Games.

“As a sports lover, let me commend the athletes who represented Nigeria at the just concluded Commonwealth Games. I salute the tenacity and doggedness of the athletes and not also forgetting the coaches, whose technical knowledge made Nigeria finish strong. The leadership expertise of the Sports Ministry led by the Sports Minister, Mr Sunday Dare and the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Engineer Habul Gumel, is highly commendable,” Igoche said.

He urged sports administrators to set as priority; grassroots development which he said is the antidote to end the dearth of talents in the country.

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Also, the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) FCT Abuja chapter has described the outing of Team Nigeria at Birmingham 2022 as outstanding saying the athletes gave their best to bring laurels to Nigeria.

FCT SWAN also commended the Falconets which has already qualified for the quarter-finals of the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica.

A statement signed by FCT SWAN secretary, Chris Onokpegu read: “The athletes were not only outstanding but also broke so many records at the just-concluded Commonwealth Games. To crown it all, there were no issue of protest or athletes fighting over their allowances for the first time and the most interesting aspect were that there was no issue of doping.

“As if that was not enough, the Falconets also churned out good results in far away Costa Rica at the ongoing FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup beating European champions, France 1-0 and South Korea by the same goal margin.

“Kudos must go to the Minister and the NFF for their wonderful contributions towards the preparations of the teams. They deserve our commendation because if they had failed, they would have been the ones receiving all the criticisms but now that they have done well and Falconets are performing wonders in Costa Rica, we have to commend them.

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“However, we want to use this opportunity to call on the Honourable Minister and his team to start preparation in earnest for the upcoming All African Games and the Olympics, so that the feat achieved at Birmingham will be a child’s play.

“We also urge the NFF to ensure that all the allowances of the girls are given on time to avoid distraction so that the girls can bring home the elusive trophy.”