Sports
African clubs pairings
Fabulous Asante Kotoko, Ghana's FA Cup champions and the sole survivors in the nation's international engagements this year, have been paired against Leopards of Kenya at the quarter-final stage of the African Cup Winners Cup competition.According to the draws released by the African Football Confederation (CAF) in Cairo, the first leg matches are to be honoured between September 6 and 8 with the second leg fixed for September 20 and 22.
Kotoko will play the first leg at home with the second leg in Nairobi, the CAF has announced. Other quarter-final pairings are: Kampala City Council (KCC) of Uganda versus Al Nasr of Libya, Dragon of Benin play cup holders National of Egypt and Jeanne D'Arc of Senegal versus Leventis of Nigeria.
In the club championship, Union Goree, conquerors of Ghana's Hearts of Oak meet Black Rhinos of Zimbabwe, Mascara of Algeria versus A. S. Bilima of Zaire, FAR of Morocco play Kaloum Stars of Guinea with Vital 'O of Burundi playing defending champions Zamalek of Egypt. The matches are scheduled between September 13 to 19.
Shooting Stars win WAFU match
IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan, defeated Africa Sport of Abidjan 2-0 in the first leg of the West African Football Union semi finals at the Liberty Stadium in Ibadan. The second leg is scheduled for the Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan on Sunday, July 14.Shooting Stars advanced to the semi finals at the expense of Sekondi Eleven Wise whom they defeated 5-3 on penalties. The Ghanaian team officials later blamed their defeat on what they called 'biased' match officiating. The other semi-finals will be fought by defending champions New Nigeria Bank and Ifodje d'Atakpame of Togo.
Three records set at Ilorin championships
Three records fell at the 39th All Nigeria Senior Athletics open Championships which has ended at the Ilorin Mini Stadium. U.S. based Christian Okoye proved his mettle in the hammer with a throw of 62.69 metres to erase L. Nwabude's record of 52 metres set in 1959.The other records were in the high jump of 2.16 metres. Decathlon Champion Brown Ebewele also broke his old record of 7,048 established in Dakar, Senegal in 1979 when he recorded 7,112 points from the ten events.
The highlights of the final day's events were in the 100 metres dash, the 400 metres men and women and the 200 metres men. Chidi Imo and Innocent Egbunike won the 100 and 400 metres events in grand style though both fell short of the existing records 10.04 and 44.8 seconds. Chidi Imo returned a time of 10.1 secs, and Egbunike 45.6 seconds.
Gallant Odizor loses to McEnroe
Meanwhile former international striker Matthew Atuegbu who coaches Rangers International has stated categorically that the Enugu based club, one time African champions and several times Nigerian champions, who occupy the seventh spot with 19 points are still capable of winning the league.Nigeria's Nduka Odizor's brilliant campaign in this year's Wimbledon singles championships ended on the dreadful Number Two Court when he lost gallantly to reigning champion, John McEnroe of the US.
Odizor who was undoubtedly the star discovery of last year's championship was determined to go places when he dismissed G. Muller of South Africa 6-7, 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-3, in his first round contest to set the confrontation with the reigning world champion.
Odizor gave the champion a lot to worry about when he broke McEnroe's powerful serves in the first set but lost gallantly 6-7, 1-6, 6-7.
In the doubles tournament, Odizor partnered by D. Dowlen of the United States proved too powerful for the Australian pair of M. R. Edmondson and. K. Warwick. Odizor and partner won by three sets to two 7-6, 7-6, 6-7, 4-6, 8-6 in the opening round matches.
Kotoko executive to be dissolved
The Executive of Kumasi Asante Kotoko will be dissolved soon to pave the way for fresh nominations to run the club's affairs. The present executive headed by Mr Ernest Yaw Bawuah came to power in 1981 when Mr Simms Kofi Mensah tendered his resignation at the end of his four year term. Meanwhile Mr Bawuah is said to have expressed his willingness to re-contest the nomination. Other heavyweights in the contest are Kwaku Ofori-Yeboah, Managing Director of Ofori Electronics, Mr Kwadwo Oppon of Kumasi, Mr J. T. Osei, a contractor and Mr Ofori Nuako a Tema-based businessman and Director of the club.Nigerian league: It's tight at the top
With three matches to the end of the Nigerian national soccer league, the championships are far from decided. With the exception of the third division where Zamtex have taken an unassailable lead, there is no clear winner in the picture.Defending WAFU champions, New Nigeria Bank eager to break fresh grounds into the African club championship, lead the first division on account of superior goal difference. They have 24 points from 19 matches. So are Abiola Babes who have scored three goals less than the leaders.
HOW THEY STAND
DIVISION ONETEAMS HOME AWAY
P W D L GF GA PTS P W D L GF GA P W
New Nigeria Bank 10 4 5 1 15 7 9 4 3 2 15 11 24
Abiola Babes 9 5 4 1 11 4 10 2 6 1 2 1 24
Calabar Rovers 9 5 410 3 10 1 5 4 6 9 21 6 2 6 6 21
Spartans 10 3 710 7 9 1 6 2 6 6 21
Bendel 9 4 2 3 9 8 10 2 6 2 5 4 20
ICC 10 4 619 6 9 5 4 6 12 19
Rangers 9 4 4 1 8 6 10 15 5 4 3 7 19
Stationery Stores 9 4 510 5 10 1 4 5 5 9 19
Sharks 10 4 4 2 7 5 9 1 4 4 10 16 18
ACB 10 3 6 1 7 6 9 - 3 6 1 9 15
First Bank 10 3 4 3 11 11 9 1 3 5 4 13 15
Mighty Jets 9 4 3 2 6 5 10 1 1 8 4 19 13
