25th March, 2013
Nigeria’s junior wheelchair basketball players will storm Johanessburg, South Africa on Wednesday for the forthcoming U- 23 African Wheelchair Basketball Championship holding in South Africa from 29 March-9 April, 2013.
The one week tourney will be used as the African qualifiers for World Junior Championship holding in Turkey later in the year.
According to the Technical Director, Nigeria Wheelchair Basketball Federation, NWBF, Adoki Tamuno, the Nigerian team that are made up of 12 players are in top shape to qualify for the world championship in South Africa.
“We have been at a close camping at the Teslim Balogun Stadium since a week ago after we selected the 12 players that will represent the country in South Africa. The players were selected based on their performances at the second edition of Ochei championship held in Lagos recently. And I can assure that they are all in top shape to win the sole ticket available for Africa at the South Africa tournament,” Tamuno said.
P.M. NEWS Sports gathered that out of the 12 players 7 players are from Bayelsa, 2 from Lagos, while one player each came from Edo and Delta States.
The Most Valuable Player, MVP, at the Ochei championship, Ahmed Ogunbona and Seun Akide are the two players selected from Lagos.
Speaking on the reason two players made the national U-23 team from Lagos despite the fact that it was that state’s team that won the Ochei championship held in Lagos recently, chairman of Lagos State Wheelchair Basketball Association, Prince Adeshina Adeyemi said there is no cause for concerns as only those players that fall within the age bracket were selected.
He added that what matter is that the best players were selected to represent the country in South Africa. He disclosed that most of the players that were selected from Bayelsa are Lagos State players.
Meanwhile, the Lagos State government has begun to fulfil its promise to sponsor the U-23 team to the championship in Johannesburg, South Africa.
According to a source at the team’s camp at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, the state government has been funding the team’s current camping in Lagos.
It would be recalled that the Lagos State Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Enitan Osodi said at the closing ceremony of the Ochei Wheelchair Championship at the Indoor Sports Hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos that the state government would sponsor the Nigeria’s team to the tournament in South Africa.