Sports
Nigeria will not boycott Games
Nigeria is determined to take part in the Los Angeles Olympics and is extremely unlikely to respond to a boycott call from the head of Africa's top sports body, a senior official has said in Lagos.The official said he knew of no one in Nigeria who took the call seriously. "Nigeria has made up its mind to participate and it is extremely unlikely to change its mind at this stage”, he said.
The call came from Henri Zongo, chairman for the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) who wanted a boycott to protest against Britain's sporting links with South Africa.
Chief Abraham Ordia, until last year the long-time president of the SCSA and a leading Nigerian Sports official said that Nigeria believed boycotts were unproductive. He said Nigeria was as angry as anyone else in Africa over the recent English rugby union tour of South Africa and the "feebleness of the British Government's efforts to halt it.
Nigeria wanted direct action against Britain and was in strong favour of excluding England from the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh in 1986.
Boycott call not by SCSA
Mr Lamine Ba, the Senegalese Secretary General of SCSA, has stated that Mr Zongo's call for the boycott was a personal statement and does not represent the views of the SCSA.Reacting to Mr Zongo's boycott call in Paris Mr Ba said the executive committee meeting in Ouagadougou last month did not call for the boycott of the Los Angeles Games.
Ghana selects team to Olympic Games
The Ghana contingent for next month's Olympic Games to be held in Los Angeles has been named.The team will be made up of 20 athletes (seven female and 13 male), six boxers and nine officials.
The female athletes are Cynthia Quartey, Doris Freema Wiredu, Grace Armah, Mary Mensah, Martha Appiah, Mercy Addy and Esther Ofosu.
The male athletes include seven locals. They are Awudu Nuhu, S.Aidoo, Abu Alhassan, J.B.Akuttey, Timothy Hesse, E.Pappoe and W.Hammond.
The other athletes, all United States based except otherwise stated, are George Enchill, M.Djan, F.Attipoe, Ernest Obeng (Britain), C.Mensah, J.Idun, Rex Brobbey (Britain), C.Moses, F.Owusu and F.Dodoo.
The boxers are Ebo Danquah (light flyweight), Amon Nikoi (bantamweight), C.Kpakpoe (featherweight), Douglas Odame (lightweight), Sulemana Sadik (light-middleweight) and Taju Akay (light- heavyweight).
The nine officials include Justice D.F.Annan, President of the National Olympic Committee (NOC), Mr Sam Okyere, Secretary-General of the NOC who will act as the chef-de-mission and general team manager, Drs. A.Agyepong and Bruce Tagoe who will be the medical officials to the boxers and athletes respectively.
The other officials are Mr N.A.Adjin Tettey, chairman/team manager (athletics), E.K.Aryeetey, coach (athletics), Miss Rose Hart (chaperon), Capt. M.T.Quarcoo, chairman/team manager/second (boxing) and Armstrong Agbana, coach (boxing).
Cameroon lose to Egypt
Cameroon has lost 1-2 to Egypt in a pre-Olympic warm-up soccer match in the Nile delta city of Mahalla El-Kubra. The two teams, along with Morocco, will represent Africa in the Los Angeles Olympic finals.The defeat was Cameroon's first in the 24-day tour of some African and European countries. It beat Burundi 2-1 in Bujumbura and defeated Kenya 3-1 in Nairobi.
YSFON fail to keep title
The Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria team, YSFON stars have failed in Spain to retain the International Youth Soccer Cup- Winners Cup it won in 1982.After failing to qualify for the final by losing 0-1 to Spain's "A" team the Nigerian flagbearers beat Switzerland 2-0 to place third.
But the YSFON Stars were awarded a gold medal for scoring a total of seven goals, the highest in the six-nation tournament, and for good performance. They were considered for the gold medal also because the age limit for the championship had been set to accommodate Spanish players under 21, while none of the Nigerian players was above 17.
Each country is entitled to enter for a maximum of two players. The competition is being sponsored by Texaco Nigeria Limited for junior players under 18.
Spain won the cup by beating Belgium 2-1.
Managers, footballers banned
The Niger Football Association has banned three team managers and six footballers from participating in any competition organised by it for a period of six months. The affected team managers are Babangida Daniya of Minna Rocks, Babangida Sini of Minna Rangers and his assistant, Ahmadu Kuta.The banned players are Gambe Tanko and Bashir Mohammed, both of Minna Rocks, Ahmadu Bawa and Degara Mohammed, both of Minna Rangers, Lawla Mohammed and Lukuman Oladimeji of Niger United and the Central Bank football clubs respectively.
The ban, which took effect from June 28, was meant to instill discipline into clubs and players who had "committed acts of gross misconduct" during the current super league matches.
Weightlifters return home
Six of the Nigerian weightlifters being groomed for the Los Angeles Olympics have returned from a 48-day training tour of Bulgaria.They are Ironbar Bassey, a bronze medalist at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in the 110kg class; Tom Iquaibom, a 56kg category lifter who also won a bronze medal at the same games; Bartholemew Oluoma, another entry in the 110kg division, Emeka Ajei (82.5kg) and Oliver Orok, whose lift earned Nigeria her only weightlifting gold at the Commonwealth Games.
16 countries invited
16 countries have been invited to participate in the 4th All-Nigeria Open Junior Lawn Tennis Championships scheduled for Lagos for August 13 to August 19. The Nigeria Lawn Tennis Association (NLTA) in a statement said entries have also been invited from the 19 states of the federation and the Federation Capital Territory, Abuja.The 16 countries that letters of invitation have been sent to are: Ghana, Togo, Kenya, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Republic of Benin, Ivory Coast, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Britain, Sweden, Hong Kong, Taipei and India.
Eagles tour put off
A proposed tour of Egypt by the Green Eagles has been cancelled. According to the NFA, the trip was put off because of the inability of the coaches to raise a team for the tour. The coaches’ complaint was that more than ten of the players in camp are nursing injuries.Meanwhile, the NFA has announced that players in camp are now free to play for their clubs in the current national league and Challenge Cup competitions until the middle of August when they are expected to re-assemble in camp to prepare for their World Cup elimination matches against Liberia.
