Team Anambra is presently missing out on the table among the first five teams in National competitions. It is worrisome that the state now plays a second fiddle in sports.
In the then Green Eagles squad of eleven players, six members of the national team were from Anambra State and were playing for Rangers, Enugu. The first Nigerian Athlete to win gold outside the shores of the country was late Major Emma Ifeajuna from Onitsha who in 1954 Commonwealth Games in Canada achieved this great feat in high jump. For more than twenty-five years, Mary Onyeali-Omagbemi, an indigene of the state, ruled Africa as queen of the tracks as she had no rival in the entire continent in short distance races. Late Godwin Iweobi Achebe was the captain of the then Green Eagles squad of Nigeria from 1958 to 1970- the skipper with the longest tenure. The record of Francis Obikwelu of Nkwelle-Ezunaka is still unequalled in the men’s two hundred metres event.
The dwindling fortunes of the state in sports started manifesting with the abandonment of school sports. Available spaces in schools became sites for indiscriminate erection of irrelevant structures while wearing of sports wears periodically during the week by students without active participation in sporting activities became the order of the day. Inter-house sports competitions which in the past used to be an avenue for the discovery of promising athletes lost its glamour while other states started luring the few available athletes of the state to their own with mouth watering incentives. The state’s athletes now constitute a significant proportion of other states’ teams at National and international competitions.
For the state to regain her lost glories in sports, all efforts should be directed towards reviving school sports and the state academicals. In the past, these avenues were recognized as breeding grounds for young promising athletes. The inauguration of sports associations is a veritable means of engaging the private sector in the sponsorship of sporting events for the discovery of talents.
If every sports association stages at least three competitions a year, it will go a long way in providing the required training for athletes for peak performance. Anambra Tertiary Institute Games, ANSTIGA, in the past provided Team Anambra with athletes for national and international competitions.
Thank God for Governor Chukwuma Soludo who choose a sports technocrat, Mr Patrick Estate Onyedum to chair the Anambra state Sports Development Commission. Much is, therefore, expected from him. Anambra State must be taken back to the good all days to meet and surpass the all time best record of Team Anambra at Benue 1996 National Sports Festival. There is urgent need to encourage the state athletes to sought for medals beyond combatant games such as track and field, ball games, stick and racket games, throws and indoor games. Determined and decisive efforts should also be put into upgrading the existing sporting facilities in the state. Every council area should have at least two basic sports facilities to enhance sports development at the grassroots. These upgrades and standardization should be extended to see to the completion of the FIFA Goal project Stadium at Amansea, construction of a training pitch at the Awka City Stadium to extend its lifespan and urgent rehabilitation of The Chuba Ikpeazu and Godwin Achebe Stadiums in Onitsha.
Written by DAMIAN EGWUONWU/
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