By Akinwale Kasali
The nation ushered in 2019 with high hopes in all sporting events it was to participate in. The hopes were really high even though everybody knew it was an election year, and so, a possibility of a change in baton might take place.
In football, the Super Eagles of Nigeria was to participate in the 2019 African Cup of Nations Championship in Egypt, the Super Falcons was also participating in the FIFA World Cup in France, while in age grade competitions, the Golden Eaglets had already qualified for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup Championship in Brazil, likewise its Under-20 FIFA World Cup Championship in Poland.
The nation was represented in all the soccer events of the year both in Africa and around the world, with high hopes of the nation recording successes in the competitions.
Sadly, the Super Eagles failed to record a fourth AFCON success, returning home with a bronze medal after a third place finish.
The Super Falcons managed to scale through the group stage with a paltry three points, qualifying as one of the best placed teams in the 24-team Championship.
The Thomas Dennerby coached Super Falcons were booted out of the second round, losing 3-0 to Germany.
In the cadet Championship in Brazil and Chile, both the Golden Eaglets and the Flying Eagles were sent packing In the second round, losing to Holland and Senegal 3-1 and 2-1 respectively.
The Home-based Super Eagles, coached by Imama Amakapabo, failed to qualify for the 2020 African Nations Championship, CHAN, to be hosted in Cameroon, losing to the Hawks of Togo 4-3 on aggregate, after performing below expectations at the West African Football Union Championship, WAFU, in Ivory Coast.
Amakapabo also failed to lead the Nigeria Under-23 Dream Team VI to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, as the team failed at the AFCON Under-23 Championship in Egypt.
The Nigerian team paraded a lot of foreign based players to prosecute the Championship but lost 1-0 to Ivory Coast, defeated Zambia 3-1 and Drew 0-0 with South Africa to push from the tournament
Also at the 2019 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup Championship in Paraguay, the Super Sand Eagles were humiliated at the competition losing all its three group matches 11-1, 6-5 and 8-2 respectively.
In Athletics, Nigeria contingents to Doha, Qatar for the World Athletics Championship, performed woefully at the competition.
The Blessing Okagbare- captained Team Nigeria were not impressive all through the competition, returning from the two-week event with just a bronze medal, courtesy Ese Brume, in the Long Jump event.
Nigerian athletes in the International Association of Athletics Federation, IAAF, meetings for the year 2019, were not impressive in their outings, as their outings in the meets were poor.
Nigeria’s Rugby team and the Cricket team have been wobbled and fumbled, as both have been relegated to the lower tiers in the ranking.
The Nigeria Basketball Female team, D’Tigeress were outstanding at the African Basketball Championship in Senegal, winning the trophy and also qualifying for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The male Basketball team, D’Tigers came second in the Africa Basketball Championship, and are presently jostling for the Olympic ticket via playoff.
No doubt, 2019 was not a fantastic Sporting year for the nation. Attention has now been shifted to 2020, as the nation will be battling to get the 2021 AFCON ticket and all age grade competitions for male and female.
