THISDAY, THE SATURDAY NEWSPAPER • MAY 21, 2016
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GLOBAL SOCCER\\OTHER SPORTS
L-R: President, Nigeria Basketball Federation; Tijani Umar, General Managerr, Marketing, MultiChoice Nigeria Martin Mabutho, presenting 3 point shooter trophy to Akpara Akita during the DStv Basketball All Star Game 2016, held at the Indoor Sport Hall, National Stadium, Abuja...recently
Let the game begins... from left: Games Captain, Tennis Section, Akeem Mustafa, Chairman Tennis Section, Esan Ogunleye, GM, Zenith Bank, Bukky Latunji and Assistant Games Captain, Dr. Abiola Oyeleye
McIlroy Chasing Home Glory in Dubai Duty Ikoyi Club Tennis Championship Climaxes Today Free Irish Open World No 3 Rory McIlroy admits it would be "huge" if he could improve on his poor record on home soil and win this week's Dubai Duty Free Irish Open. The tournament host has recorded just two top-10 finishes in nine tournament appearances and has missed the cut in his home event three years running. McIlroy heads to the K Club off the back of a tied-fourth finish at the Wells Fargo Championship and a tied-12th showing at last week's Players Championship, where the Northern Irishman missed a chance to break the TPC Sawgrass course record.
The 27-year-old is the only player in the world's top five yet to register a worldwide win in 2016, but McIlroy feels his game is in good shape to challenge for victory this week. "My performances in this event, obviously over the past three years, but going beyond that, haven't been what I would want," McIlroy said. "I want to really change that this week with a good performance and I feel like my game is in good enough shape to do that. "I'm coming off a couple of decent weeks in the States where
I felt like I played better than what the results suggested, so I'm looking forward to the week. "The K Club here is a golf course where I feel like I can do well on. It sets up well for me. It would be huge (to win). I think anyone that plays professional golf, they dream of winning their home open. "You don't get very many opportunities to do it, so it would be very special. It's definitely one tournament that is missing from my CV that I would love to add." McIlroy tees off alongside Andy Sullivan and defending
champion Soren Kjeldsen for the opening two rounds in Kildare, while Masters winner Danny Willett has been grouped with Lee Westwood and Rafa Cabrera Bello. The four-time major champion posted an opening round 80 and missed the cut at Royal County Down 12 months ago, but feels he has learnt from last year's first stint at tournament host. "I think there was times where I spread myself a little bit too thin last year with a lot of commitments and we've tried to scale that back a little bit this year," he added.
Quarter Finalists Battle Today at 2016 NNPC/Shell Cup Four centers would be agog today as the quarter final matches of the 2016 NNPC/ Shell Cup kicks off. No fewer than 10 schools emerged from the zonal preliminaries recently concluded in nine cities across the country to battle for the semifinals ticket The zonal preliminary matches which took place at the Township Stadium Katsina produced two schools for the quarter finals.
They are Government Secondary School, Kwankwaso, Kano and Government Day Secondary School, Samaru Ibrahim, Gusau while Fosla Academy Secondary School, Abuja emerged from the Minna zone of the preliminaries. Government Secondary School, Goniri, booked a quarter final ticket from Jalingo zone at the expense of schools from Gombe, Borno and Adamawa states. At Ilorin, Bauchi State
represented by Government Senior Secondary School, Darazo emerged as qualifiers for the quarter finals just as Excel Education Centre, Port Harcourt also defeated all her opponents at the Uyo zone to clinch the quarter finals ticket. Owerri zone produced National Grammar School, Nike, Enugu State as the champions of the zone and booked a ticket to play at the quarter finals.
Other quarter finalists are St. Marys High School, Ifitedunu, Enugu State, Pakoto High School, Ifo, Ogun State and Asegun Comprehensive High School, Ibadan, Oyo State that qualified from Ughelli, Osogbo and Akure zones respectively. Meanwhile, the quarter finals have been scheduled to take place in four centers, namely, Katsina, Ilorin, Benin and Osogbo from May 21 – May 24.
Savannah Conference Wins Third DStv All Star Game The Savannah Conference won their third straight DStv Premier Basketball league All Star game at the weekend inside the indoor hall of the National Stadium, Abuja in a tightly contested match to beat the Atlantic Conference 81 -77 points. In an ebullient display of skills, the Savannah Conference tutored by Sani Ahmed led 31-22 after the first quarter and won the second 26-22 to lead 57-44 at half-time. However, the tide turned in the third quarter, as the Atlantic Conference led by Coach Adewumi Aderemi, fought back with a 23-12 point lead, and almost closed out the game after leading 10-7 in the fourth quarter by a 77-76 scoreline with 25 seconds to end the game. Two-time MVP, Abubakar Usman of Kano Pillars had other ideas as he scored three
points from the free throw line, taking his game tally to 13 points and helped Savannah Conference win the game. Speaking after the enthralling match, General Manager, Marketing, MultiChoice Nigeria, Martin Mabutho, expressed pleasure over the evolution of the All Star game in the country. “Our commitment towards the game has been consistent. You will recall that the first All Star game was hosted in Kaduna in 2010. Since then, we have held the All Star games, introducing innovation and excitement at every turn. Today was no exception with Supersports beaming the match live to Nigerians. We are here for the long haul and we intend to take the game round the country,” Mabutho said.
Speaking on the development of basketball in Nigeria, Mabutho said that “the future of the game of basketball looks very bright and promising which explains our rationale for bringing the All Star Game to Abuja for the first time. The attendance was good with the calibre of high profile guests that attended the Game including the wonderful fans that turned up. It has been a wonderful experience, one that deserves applause, considering the standard of play on the court, and the passion exhibited by the fans. They all lived up to the billing." Starters for the Savannah Conference included the trio of Abubakar Usman, Mathew Onmonya, and AbdulWahab Yahaya from Kano Pillars, Timothy Kwaor of Gombe Bulls and Stanley Gumut of Mark
Mentors, while the Atlantic Conference paraded Wilfred Romeo from Kwara Falcons, Romaric Quenum from Nigeria Customs, Victor James from Royal Hoopers, Emuhowa Oghenetano from Delta Force and Owolabi Suleiman from Oluyole Warriors on its starting rooster. The lively occasion also featured the Skills challenge, Slam dunk contest and 3-point shootout competition amongst the players. At the end of the All Star Game, Romeo Wilfred emerged as the Most Outstanding Player while Kano Pillars, Dele Ademola won the MVP prize. Lucky Subel also from Kano Pillars won the Slam Dunk Contest with 48 points while Suleiman Owolabi won the Skills Challenge and Akpara Akita of Bauchi Nets won the 3 point contest with 23 points.
After a week of competitive tennis and fun, the Zenith Bank sponsored Ikoyi Club Tennis Championship will Climaxes today. All the participants in both the individual and team tennis events, who are members of Ikoyi Club 1938 Tennis Section are expected go home with valuable prizes. According to the Games Captain, Tennis Section of Ikoyi Club 1938, Akeem Mustafa, “Every participant in the competition had been assured of valuable prizes. For taking part in the tournament at all, you are sure of going home with something.” In the team tournament, the players are divided into the Red and Grey groups, with each group comprising of four teams of seven players. The team names represent Zenith Bank product brands, and there are also the individual events which include the men’s singles A and B, ladies singles, men’s doubles and veteran’s doubles competitions for players aged 60 years and above and super veteran’s singles for players aged 70 years and above. Mustafa said the championship which lasted for one week, had promoted inclusiveness as about 75 per cent of the participants would be rewarded with exciting prizes and trophies; and despite the competitive nature of the championship, fitness and bonding amongst members was the ultimate aim, in a fun and friendly environment.
Amaju, Green to Grace Final of South-south Tourney President, Nigeria Football Federation, Pinnick Amaju, and the Head, Technical Committee of the NFF, Chris Green, will grace the final of the inaugural South-South Champion of Champions football tournament at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, Edo State, today. According to the Edo FA chairman, Frank Ilaboya, he said the duo had assured of him their presence at the closing ceremony of the competition, which has eight teams from the South-south region of the country vying for honours. “I spoke with the NFF president, Amaju, and Green and they are both excited about the standard of play displayed in the competition and have promised to be present on the final day,” Ilaboya said.The participating teams are Edo FA Cup kings, Inneh Stars, Dynamite FC, Insurance (Edo); J.Atete, Delta Force (Delta); Yenagoa Academy (Bayelsa), Akwa Starlets and Go Round FC (Rivers). The winners of the tournament, organised by the Edo FA and sponsored by FROT Group, will go home with N1m while runners-up will receive N500,000. Ilaboya said there would also be a ceremonial match between ex-internationals, which would include Augustine Eguavoen, Kingsley Obiekwu, Joe Okoh, Edema Fuludu, Emmanuel Okonebho, Karimu Shuaibu, Wilson Oboh amongst others against a Benin All Stars team. “The ex-internationals versus All Stars game will serve as the curtain-raiser of the tournament; the game will give people the opportunity to watch the ex-internationals in action again. I am happy with the standard of play displayed by the teams; all the teams are happy because the tournament will help them prepare properly for the Federation Cup, which is just around the corner,” Ilaboya stated. Speaking further, Ilaboya added, “Insurance and Delta Force are the invited teams for the tournament. Edo has three teams because we want to use the competition to maximum benefit. It will be of great help to Insurance, who are gunning for promotion to the top division, and Inneh Stars and Dynamite FC, who will represent us in the Federation Cup.”
18th Nestle Milo Basketball Championship Kogi, Adamawa Boys, Girls Clash in Confluence Final Government Secondary School, Numan, Adamawa and Harmony Secondary School, Lokoja, Kogi State, have qualified for the Confluence Conference final of the 18th Nestle Milo Secondary School Basketball championships in Lokoja. Bastektball lovers and fans had something to cheer as the future stars of the game entertained them at the Indoor sports hall of the Confluence Stadium.
Harmony Secondary School fought back from a four-point deficit to account for the scalp of Government Girls Secondary School, Jogona, Kano 22-17. Supporters of the two teams were kept at the edge of their seats throughout the match. In the second semifinal, there was no surprise as defending champions of the Conference, Adamawa, showed their superiority over Bauchi's Government College Narbodo with 33-11 victory.
Though the girls' semifinals made the fans salivate, the boys category offered a special touch. Crowther Memorial College Lokoja was pushed harder by Darusalam Science and Academy Maiduguri but they eventually prevailed with 43-30 points win. Abu Uma-Ojo and Kazeem Usman were the outstanding players for the Kogi boys. The game that lived up to its billing was between General Muritala Muhammad College Yola, Adamawa and Ahmadiyah
College Kano. There was no dull moment as the Kano boys succumbed to the firepower of Adamawa losing 31-24. Head coach of Adamawa boys, Tinism Dickson, lauded the sponsor, Nestle Plc, for their continued support of the game at grassroots level, saying, “the sponsor should be commended for ensuring the continuation of the annual event. We need more of this, so that we can discover more players from the schools.”
Officials of PZ Cossons led by brand manager (Premier), Deedi Modey pose with one of the winners of all-expense paid trip to the Etihad Stadium at Park and Shop, Ilupeju, Lagos