Olympics
LAGOS ATHLETES APPLAUD TANDOH’S POSITIVE LEADERSHIP
BY DAPO SOTUMINU, GUEST WRITER
The generality of Team Lagos athletes have applauded the performances of the Chairman of the state’s sports commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, over the years since he assumed office in charge of the state’s sports.
The athletes, expressed satisfaction especially in the areas of welfare, prompt payment of salaries, facilities, competitions and the development of sports in the state.
The overall captain of Team Lagos, Tunde Mohammed, remarked: “So far, so good, sports have been doing very well under Dr Tandoh. In fact, he continued where the late Deji Tinubu stopped.
“While preparing for last year’s National Sports Festival in Abuja, we were camped for a long time and the athletes’ allowances and bonuses were paid, so we went to the festival in Abuja very happy.
“Even at the festival venue, there were on the spot cash rewards for athletes who won medals.
“This further morally boosted Team Lagos athletes to do well, where Lagos finished fourth with a total 146 medals from 36 gold medals, 37 silver and 73 bronze the biggest haul among all the 36 states that participated.
“Team Lagos was given the best accommodation for athletes in Abuja, it was not different for the junior athletes at the National Youth Games in Ilorin.
“The motivation spurred the athletes on to win the overall second position behind Delta State with 23 gold, 15 silver and 22 bronze medals totaling 60 medals.
“The Commission does not owe us salaries, the same with our grants. The only thing we are waiting for is our cash reward from the governor for winning medals at the last editions of the Sports Festival in Abuja.”
Tunde Mohammed noted that, Dr. Tandoh has performed excellently so far and his greatest attribute is telling the athletes as it is, he doesn’t hide information and that is what athletes want.
The Secretary of the Team Lagos athletes, Oluwatosin Solademi, also said that the administration of Dr Tandoh as Chairman of the Lagos Sports Commission has brought greater development to sports in the state.
“Until date he has performed excellently well with the help of the sports-loving Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
“Sports facilities in Lagos now are better than before, a situation which attracts other states to come to Lagos to train for major competitions.
“For the first time in history, Team Lagos athletes were paid up-to-date at the National Sports Festival in Abuja.
“If you ask the other athletes they will tell you the same thing that, the best we have got has been under the chairmanship of Dr Tandoh.
“He doesn’t hide matters concerning athletes’ funds, if there is any mix up, he calls the associations secretaries to clarify. With Dr. Tandoh, Lagos athletes are having a good time and if you ask the athletes to vote for him, he would at least get 80 percent of yes votes.”
It was gathered that, the only people who are complaining about the leadership of chairman are the contract coaches whose contract expired on December 31, 2018. Their anger is that as they have been out of contract, they have not being getting their monthly grants and salaries.
“This is the cause of our anger, and that is why we have been protesting against the chairman.
“We don’t have money to feed our family. Our contract expired in December 2018 and it is yet to be renewed, we were told the renewal is in the hands of the governor.
“It was written in our contract that it expires on December 31, 2018, but we were not given any letter telling us that our contract is no longer needed, if this has not been done, the Commission should keep paying us.
“It was only last week that, we gathered that the chairman is working on a fresh contract for all coaches such when approved, it would take care of the salaries from January to May 2019, the period when they were out of contract since they have been coaching the athletes,” one of the coaches said.
Roy Jones Jr has been handed the Olympic gold medal he was controversially denied in 1988 in an extraordinary act of sportsmanship by the South Korean fighter who beat him.
Hall of Fame boxer Jones shared a video on Wednesday from two years ago that showed Park Si-hun visiting the American’s ranch in Pensacola, Florida to present him with the light middleweight gold medal.
“I had the gold medal, but I want to give it back to you. It belongs to you,” Park said in the video through his son, who translated.
Jones, who was overcome with emotion by the gesture, covered his face with his hand before saying: “Wow, that is crazy.”
Their match at the Seoul Olympics remains one of boxing’s most contentious moments as Jones appeared to dominate the fight but lost to Park by a 3-2 decision that drew instant criticism and sparked enduring controversy.
Despite losing the gold medal match, Jones was selected as the Val Barker Trophy winner as the best boxer of the 1988 Olympics.
Jones went on to become a four-division world champion and is regarded as one of the sport’s best pound-for-pound fighters of all time.
“In 1988, I was robbed of the gold medal in what became one of the biggest controversies in boxing history,” Jones wrote in his Instagram post.
“By the grace of God, a couple of years ago, the man who won that medal made the trip from South Korea to my home to return it to me, feeling it was rightfully mine.
“I hope you enjoy this moment as much as I did.”
-Reuters
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U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday creating a White House Olympics task force to handle security and other issues related to the 2028 Summer Olympic Games, an administration official told Reuters.
The task force, made up of members from Trump’s cabinet and government agencies, will coordinate federal, state and local government work on transportation, the official said.
It also will “streamline visa processing and credentialing for foreign athletes, coaches, officials, and media,” the official said in an email.
The United States will host the Olympics in Los Angeles in three years. Trump, a Republican who lost the 2020 election to Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed pleasure that his second term will coincide with the Olympics and the World Cup.
“During his first term, President Trump was instrumental in securing America’s bid to host the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The president considers it a great honor to oversee this global sporting spectacle in his second term,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement on Monday.
Last month organizers of the Los Angeles games released the first look at the Olympic competition schedule . The city had also hosted the Olympics in 1932 and 1984.
“The creation of this task force marks an important step forward in our planning efforts and reflects our shared commitment to delivering not just the biggest, but the greatest Games the world has ever seen in the summer of 2028,” Casey Wasserman, the chair and president of LA28, said in a statement.
–Reuters
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By DAVID LEE
Home is many places for swimmer Adaku Nwandu, who was born in China, lives in Singapore and wears the Nigeria flag on her swimsuit.
And it is at her current home in Singapore that the 17-year-old is making her debut at the World Aquatics Championships (WCH).
In the second heat of the 100m freestyle at the WCH Arena, the teenager, who has a Nigerian father and Chinese mother, led at the turn before finishing third in 1min 0.89sec – she eventually placed 59th out of 82 athletes overall.
After her race, Adaku shared with The Straits Times that she was born and raised in Shanghai, and started swimming when she was eight. Interestingly, it was ice cream that kept her in the sport.
Adaku, who still has the 50m freestyle heats on Aug 2, said: “At a school competition, I didn’t do so well and I asked my dad if we could make a deal. He said if I do better, he would buy me ice cream once every week, and that’s a promise we have kept with each other. And that’s what brought me here.”
In 2023, the family moved to Singapore due to her mother’s work posting. With her fluent Mandarin and love for Asian and spicy food, it did not take long for her to pick up Singlish and enjoy local delights like chicken rice and chilli crab.
She said: “We came here mainly because of my mother’s work, and also because the swimming scene back where I lived in China was a little bit toxic, so she also thought Singapore would be a new experience and better for my swimming.”
By then, she had already committed to representing Nigeria after its aquatics association contacted her after the National Sports Festival in Asaba, where the then 16-year-old was part of the national record-breaking women’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
But Singapore is where she has been honing her swimming skills, as she has set her 50m and 100m freestyle long- and short-course Nigeria national records at meets here.
Noting her improvements, Singapore swimming coach and performance director Gary Tan said: “Adaku has been participating in our system for a while, and we hope it helps her develop as a swimmer and achieve what she wants while training in Singapore with her school (German European School Singapore).”
For someone who is inspired by Olympic champions David Popovici, Caeleb Dressel and Adam Peaty for “their dedication and the way they are able to take breaks for themselves to improve and get back to the water”, qualifying for Paris 2024 on ranking points was a dream come true.
Her Olympic debut was also unforgettable as her swimsuit ripped 20 minutes before her 50m freestyle heat, but she managed to finish second in her heat and 33rd out of 78th overall in 26.62 seconds, just 0.03 of a second off her personal best.
Back in Singapore, Adaku, who is in the International Baccalaureate (IB) programme at her school, realised that she needed more of such resilience to reach her goals.
The swimmer, who also plays for the school’s volleyball team, said: “I had a lot of improvement the first year I came to Singapore. But this past year has been especially hard for me with family problems and also school. The workload in my first year of IB made it hard to balance training and school.
“Especially in the next year, I want to focus more on swimming and try to get some new personal bests because this year I just plateaued. I’m looking forward to training harder and preparing for my next competition and hopefully qualify for the next Olympics.”
-Strait Times, Singapore
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