Sport

Handball: 18 players welcomed for big showdown

By Zuleihat Ahmed

September 01, 2023

Shittu Agboola, the head coach of the Nigerian U-18 women’s handball team, has invited 18 players to a camp in preparation for the 19th edition of the Africa Women’s Youth Nations Championship.

The Africa Ladies’ Childhood Countries Title will occur in Monastir, Tunisia from September 16 to 23.

The players invited were primarily those who qualified for the IHF Trophy Intercontinental Phase, which will take place later this year, by winning both the IHF Trophy Africa Zone 3 phase in Ghana and the IHF Trophy Africa Continental Phase in Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

The rundown has chief Esther Matthew and the Babatunde twins (Taiwo and Kehinde) from Seasider Darlings of Lagos, goalkeeper Valuable Samuel, Judiciousness Samuel and Rahima Bello of Rima Sovereigns, Vera John of Bayelsa Sovereigns and Damilola Akinlade of Delta Power among others.

Setting up camp started Wednesday with the players showing up at the Rowe Park Sports Center in Yaba, Lagos to start escalated planning in front of the title.

The group will play in bunch A close by Guinea, Algeria and double cross top dog Tunisia in the Young class (U-18) which will start following the lesser (U-20) part of the title.

Nigeria will be taking part without precedent for the title since they came next in the absolute first release in 2000 in Abidjan.

The group will expect to take their type of the IHF Ladies’ Prize into the Africa title which fills in as qualifiers for the 2024 IHF Ladies’ Childhood World Handball Title.

Nigeria has never been equipped for the big showdown, and this presents a chance for the country to leave a mark on the world.