Nigeria’s U-18 girls have been crowned champion of the IHF Women’s Trophy Africa Zone 3 Phase after defeating Benin Republic in Accra, Ghana.
The fans at the Tennis Arena of the Accra Sports Stadium, were in awe of the coach Shittu Adewunmi’s girls as they conveniently earned a 42-17 victory over Benin Republic with goalkeeper Babatunde Kehinde named the Most Valuable Player of the Match for a wonderful performance.
She is the twin sister of Babatunde Taiwo, who got the MVP in Nigeria’s first match against Liberia.
Thus, Nigeria qualifies for the IHF Women’s Trophy Continental Phase, winning four matches without losing any game in the competition.
After an annihilating 61-16 victory over Liberia on day one, Nigeria’s U-18 girls team last Thursday earned another comfortable win over hosts Ghana in a thrilling match at the Tennis Arena of the Accra Sports Stadium.
They followed that up with another convincing 38-22 victory over Ivory Coast on Friday.
Nigeria’s Esther Matthew was voted as the Most Valuable Player of the championship while goalkeeper Precious Samuel was picked by organisers as the Best Goalkeeper of the competition.
President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria Samuel Ocheho, who is in Accra in his capacity as the president of IHF Africa Zone 3., said he was excited that the development programmes of the HFN to discover talents are yielding dividends.
“I am super excited that the programmes of the HFN to discover players through our underage competition are yielding dividends.
“This is a testament to the successes of our programmes and we will continue to ensure that we continue to development of the game and its continued growth,” Ocheho said.
Nigeria will represent Africa Zone 3 the continental phase of the IHF Trophy Africa phase in a yet-to-be-announced host country in a few months.
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
