Future of Nigerian handball battle it out for national titles

The Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN) Men’s and Women’s U18 and U21 national championships were held at Rowe Park Sports Centre, Yaba, Lagos from 25 March to 1 April after moving from the original venue of Ilorin in Kwara State.

Ahead of the competition, the HFN confirmed that 37 teams from 15 states of the country had registered for the various individual championships which are hoped can discover talents and develop handball in the country. And to allow for the freshest talents to make their mark, players who competed in the recent Prudent Energy Premier League, were not allowed to participate.

It was nearly a clean sweep for the south-western state of Lagos in all four tournaments as they took home the men’s U18 and U21, plus women’s U21 titles. Preventing them from that 100% domination were Bayelsa State, who defeated Gboko Volunteers of Benue 18:8 in the seven-state U18 women’s competition.

Lagos took the honours in the U21 women’s competition, beating Niger State’s Suleja Shooters 36:25 in the final, while Niger State were again defeated by Lagos in a final – in the 13-state U18 men’s competition, 33:27.  And it was a third Lagos vs Niger final in the U21 men’s competition, as Lagos defended their title, defeating Niger by four goals (37:33).

“The age grade competitions for our board are the most important tournaments as they remain our production factory for the future,” said Sam Ocheho, HFN President to ihf.info.

“The more age grade competitions we play, the better for us and for our national teams. Our future-ready transformation begins with these age grade championships.

“Due to some unexpected late issues we had to move the games from Kwara State to Lagos and had less than a week to prepare, but our contingency plan turned out better than we had planned for,” explained Ocheho about the last-minute change of hosts. 

“This led to unprecedented economic interest around the championship with food vendors, hotels, transport and logistic providers all benefitting from the business generated, proving that handball in Nigeria doesn’t just have an effect on court, but off court too.”

For Ocheho, watching the championships gives him confidence about the future at a variety of levels for handball in his country.

“Our age grade championships produced Faruk Yusuf and so many Faruk Yusuf’s abound in these championships,” said Ocheho about the 17-year-old Nigerian right back, who was officially unveiled as an EHF Champions League Lomza Vive Kielce player at the beginning of the year.

“In August, we have the U12 and U15 championships scheduled for August in Sokoto State, which has a rich history of handball in Nigeria. But it is not only the players – we used junior referees in the U18 and U21 championship who only started officiating in the past few years. They were wonderful and I see them refereeing internationally in the future.

“We are all confident at the HFN that Nigeria will regain its place amongst the world’s handball nations again.”

Rankings

U18 Women
1 – Bayelsa State
2 – Gboko Volunteers of Benue (Benue State)
3 – Lagos Tojemarine

U21 Women
1 – Lagos
2 – Suleja Shooters (Niger State)
3 – Kwara State

U18 Men
1 – Lagos
2 – Niger 
3 – De Kings Ogun

U21 Men
1 – Lagos 
2 – Niger
3 – Kwara State

Photos: Handball Federation of Nigeria