Handball: U-23, U-18 teams begin training ahead of international tourneys
Nigeria’s U-23 and U-18 men’s handball teams have begun intensive preparatory camps ahead of two top international handball championships.
The national U-23 men’s handball team under the tutelage of Solomon Yola and Adebayo Yekini are presently undergoing intensive training at Package B of the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja ahead of the 5th IHF Emerging Nations Championship which will hold from March 11 to 16 in Vana, Bulgaria. The national U-18 team led by coaches Emeka Nnamani and Joshua Ayo, have also begun preparation at the Rowe Park Sports Center, Yaba, Lagos ahead of the IHF Trophy Intercontinental Phase which will be held in Pristina, Kosovo from March 12 to 16.
The Nigeria U-18 handball team is the sole representative of Africa following their 38-26 victory over Guinea to be crowned champion of the Continental Phase in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in November 2024. They have been consistently ranked as one of the top teams of the IHF Men’s Trophy in the Youth Category with a second-placed finish in Pristina, Kosovo in 2019 and finishing third in San Jose, Costa Rica in 2023.
The Nnamani-tutored team will begin their campaign against New Caledonia on Wednesday, March 12 and will also play Kosovo as well in the preliminary stage.
For the U-23 team led by Yola, they will play the United States of America, Azerbaijan and the Republic of Moldova in Group B of the championship which will be held at the Palace of Sports and Culture in Vana, Bulgaria.
Nigeria will begin their campaign against the United States of America on Tuesday, March 11 and will play Azerbaijan the next day and Moldova thereafter.
The IHF Emerging Nations Championship is organised by the International Handball Federation for countries participating in the four-year plan of the European Handball Federation and some of the best-ranked countries that didn’t qualify for the World’s Men Handball Championship. Nigeria had previously participated in the 2019 edition in Georgia and the 2023 edition in Bulgaria. They finished second on both occasions.
President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria, Samuel Ocheho, has reiterated the federation’s commitment to restoring Nigeria’s place in the global handball community.
“We have always worked hard to ensure that we take our place back in the international handball community and it’s been an ongoing process all these years with physical dividends as shown in our successes in international competitions,” he said.
“In our continued push to do so, we are to send two of our national teams to top international competitions which we know will improve the lot of sport in Nigeria despite the herculean tasks which involve massive finances to do so”.
“But we are not deterred and we know that this is the way to go for us to be of reckoning once again in the international handball community.”
