There were five categories of awards, money, and property given to athletes who took part at the World Athletics Championships and the Commonwealth Games

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led government showered mouthwatering awards on Nigerian medalists who represented the nation at the Commonwealth Games that just ended in Birmingham and the 2022 World Athletics Championships, which was held in Oregon in July.

It divided the athletes and coaches who represented Nigeria in the two competitions into five groups.

The quartet of Tobiloba Amusan World Athletics and Diamond League Champion, alongside fellow athletes, Ese Brume with 10-time African wrestling champion, Blessing Oborududu and Para Powerlifter, Oluwafemiayo Folashade, got the highest prizes.

According to the information from the Presidency obtained by Premium Times, Amusan, Brume, Oborududu and Folashade-all gold medalists went home with N4.5 million and the national honour, the Officer of the Order of Niger (OON).

Meanwhile, Odunayo Adekuoroye, Eucharia Iyiazi, Adijat Olarinoye and four others received the MON award and 4.5 million.

Silver and Bronze medalists went home with national awards and a sum of N2.5 million and N1.5 million respectively. Also, coaches, whose wards won medals, received N1.5 million each while Non-medalist Athletes with their coaches got 600k each.

The full list of awardees and awards

Category A

Presidential House gift in Abuja, National Award of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) and the sum of N4.5 Million each to four (4) outstanding athletes, who have distinguished themselves by setting World Records in international Championships/Games between 2021-2022:

Category B

National Honour of Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) and the sum of N4.5 Million each to the Gold Medalists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games:

Category C

National Honour of Federal Republic Medal One and the sum of N2.5 Million each for Silver Medalists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games:

Category D

Award of National Honour of Federal Republic Medal Two and the sum of N1.5 Million each to Bronze Medalists at the 2022 Commonwealth Games

Category E

Speaking at the event, President Buhari said, ”Twelve times the world stood still as our green, white, green national flag was hoisted and the National Anthem recited. Thirty-five times we made it to the podium. You all, Team Nigeria, made that possible.

”You brought glory and honour to our country. And today, on behalf of the nation, I say, THANK YOU!”

Tyson Fury’s long-awaited bout with British-Nigerian Anthony Joshua is 90 per cent done, according to Fury’s promoter Frank Warren, who has said that everyone involved in the ‘Battle of Britain’ wants it to happen.

Fury has made a series of U-turns in the last few months starting with his decision to retire following a sixth-round stoppage of Dillian Whyte in April, and originally sought a unification fight against Oleksandr Usyk who beat Joshua in Saudi Arabia last month to retain the world heavyweight titles.

However, the Ukrainian’s reluctance to fight until 2023 due to family concerns led Fury to offer Joshua the chance to face off for the WBC heavyweight belt.

On Tuesday, Joshua’s management team 258 revealed the terms of the fight had been agreed last week, only for the passing of Queen Elizabeth II to delay confirmation.

Warren says there is still work to be done on the bout which is currently projected to take place on December 3, but does not anticipate any issues stopping the Battle of Britain.

“The contracts are on their way,” Warren told talkSPORT. “I’m not going into great detail about this, because we saw what happened last time around with people making statements and so forth, and it all fell apart.

“This fight won’t be on until it’s signed, but everybody wants it to happen.

“The basis of the deal, 90 per cent of what counts, is okay, 10 per cent we’ve got to sort out. There aren’t any obstacles in the way, so hopefully very quickly we can get it over the line.”

“When you’re a promoter, you’re an optimist. That’s what you do. You’re in the business of trying to make events happen, so we’re all excited by it.

“I’m excited about it as a fight, because I always felt that Tyson has the beating of AJ, and now we’re going to find out if we get this over the line.”

While Fury is unbeaten in his 33 professional fights, winning 32, Joshua has suffered three defeats in his last five bouts.

On Saturday, the Nigeria Football Federation announced, through a statement, that Nigerian striker Orji Okonkwo had been suspended from football for four years by FIFA, after being found guilty of a doping violation.

The 24-year-old, who plays for Serie A side Bologna, was initially handed the ban by Italy’s national anti-doping agency (Nado Italia) in June.

In February, Okonkwo – who is set to appeal – tested positive for the steroid clostebol during a loan spell at Cittadella.

Clostebol, which the player said he used to treat a problematic knee, is on the World Anti-Doping Code prohibited list.

FIFA’s disciplinary committee has now extended the Nado Italia sanctions to have “worldwide effect”, according to its chairperson Jorge Ivan Palacio.

“Consequently, the committee decided to extend the sanction imposed on the player by the Italian Nado on June 20, 2022,” read a FIFA statement.

“More specifically, the player is sanctioned with a four years suspension from all football-related activities in accordance with the decision.”

His ban has been backdated to February 25 and he will be free to play again on February 24 2026.

Rising profile

Okonkwo joined Bologna in northern Italy in August 2016, a year after he helped Nigeria, alongside Napoli’s Victor Osimhen and Samuel Chukwueze of Villarreal, win the 2015 U-17 World Cup.

He made 30 appearances, scoring three goals in 27 Serie A matches, for the side, including four starts.

Okonkwo had two notable loan spells at Major League Soccer side Montreal Impact and also spent time on loan at Italian second-tier clubs Brescia, Reggina and Cittadella.

At the international level, Okwonkwo started three games for Nigeria at the 2019 Africa U-23 Cup of Nations, scoring a goal against Zambia.

He starred as the West African nation clinched a fifth U-17 world title in Chile seven years ago, appearing in five games during the tournament and scoring in the 4-2 semi-final win over Mexico.

English Premier League results on Sunday:

Brentford 0 Arsenal 3 (Saliba 17, Jesus 28, Vieira 49)

Everton 1 (Maupay 53) West Ham 0

Played Saturday

Newcastle 1 (Isak 67-pen) Bournemouth 1 (Billing 62)

Tottenham 6 (Kane 8, Dier 21, Bentancur 47, Son 73, 84, 86) Leicester 2 (Tielemans 6-pen, Maddison 41)

Wolves 0 Manchester City 3 (Grealish 1, Haaland 16, Foden 69)

Friday

Aston Villa 1 (Ramsey 41) Southampton 0

Nottingham Forest 2 (Awoniyi 11, O’Brien 77) Fulham 3 (Adarabioyo 54, Palhinha 57, Reed 60)

Postponed

Brighton v Crystal Palace, Chelsea v Liverpool, Manchester United v Leeds

Monza won their first ever match in Serie A on Sunday after stunning 10-man Juventus 1-0 to pile more pressure on under-fire Massimiliano Allegri.

Christian Gytkjaer netted a historic goal 15 minutes from the end at the U-Power Stadium to move the club owned by Silvio Berlusconi off the bottom of the table and end Juve’s unbeaten start to the season.

Monza took their first three points of the campaign in their first match under Raffaele Palladino, who replaced sacked Giovanni Stroppa on Tuesday.

They are still in the relegation zone but a single point behind 17th-placed Verona, who were beaten 2-0 at Fiorentina.

Troubled Juve, who lost Angel Di Maria to a straight red card five minutes before half-time, sit in eighth after winning just two of their opening seven matches.

They are six points behind provisional league leaders Udinese following their 3-1 win over Inter Milan earlier on Sunday.

Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski broke a club record with his brace against Elche.

Barca defeated Elche 3-0 on Saturday.

With his double against Elche, Lewandowski has eight goals in six games, 1.33 goals per game.

Online statistician Mr Chip claims that he has seven, not counting one of the strikes against Valladolid, but no player has scored seven in the first six games in the division since 1997, and Christian Vieri.

The reality is that Lewandowski’s goal does count so he has eight, beating Barcelona legend Ladislao Kubala, who netted seven in his first six.

Five of them were in a 6-1 win over Celta Vigo.

Queen’s Park Rangers coach, Michael Beale has stated that Leon Balogun’s impact since he joined the club has been immense.

Beale in an interview after QPR’s goalless draw against Stoke City described the game as a typical Championship match with little opportunities and not much in terms of quality.

He said QPR’s successive clean sheets is a result of his player’s hard work but set aside praise for Balogun who joined the team after the start to the season.

“Big credit goes to the team (for keeping two clean sheets in two games). But obviously Leon Balogun coming in is significant. His coming in has given us an experience and I’m not going to say hope, because he won’t like that, but he is an experienced head in the back four. He has helped us become stronger in the last couple of games.”

The draw against Stoke took QPR to 6th on the log after 10 games as they’ve lost just once and drawn one of their last five games.

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, has said “pure gut feeling” was behind his decision to include Ethan Nwaneri in his squad for the Brentford match.

The Gunners returned to the top of the table following a 3-0 win at the Gtech Community Stadium on Sunday.

William Saliba, Gabriel Jesus and Fabio Vieira all scored for Arteta’s side.

However, one of the moments of the game saw a 15-year-old Nwaneri make his debut.

Nwaneri came on to replace Bukayo Saka in the 90th minute of the game.

“It was a pure gut feeling. I met the boy, I really liked what I saw. He trained with us a couple of times.

“I had that feeling yesterday that if the opportunity could come, I would do it. He deserves it,” Arteta told reporters.

At the age of 15 years and 181 days, Ethan Nwaneri became the youngest ever player to appear in a Premier League match.

The previous-youngest had been Harvey Elliott, who played for Fulham at the age of 16 years and 30 days (v Wolves in May 2019).

Remo Stars are out of the CAF Confederation Cup after losing 1-0 at home to the nemesis of Nigerian clubs, Morocco’s  Association’s Sports of Forces Armed Royal (AS FAR).

They crashed out 2-1 on aggregate after having an initial soul-lifting 1-1 draw last Sunday in Rabat.

Remo Stars become the fifth Nigerian club to ever crash out to the ‘military’ tactics of the Royal Moroccan Army football club.

Victory however did not come easy for the Moroccans who profited from the howler Bashiru Monsuru committed in the 55^th minute as the ball went straight to a Moroccan attacker who blasted past Kayode Bankole in goal.

As much as the Remo Stars boys tried, they missed chances after chances.

Expectedly, the Moroccans activated the delay tactics that further frustrated Remo Stars.

Head Coach José Santos Peseiro has opted for captain Ahmed Musa, deputy captain William Ekong and 23 other players to take on former African champions Algeria in an international friendly match in the Algerian town of Oran on Tuesday, 27^th September.

Also called are goalkeepers Francis Uzoho and Maduka Okoye, defenders Kenneth Omeruo, Chidozie Awaziem and Calvin Bassey, midfielders Wilfred Ndidi and Alex Iwobi, and forwards Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze, Taiwo Awoniyi and Cyriel Dessers.

Only Richard Onyedika, of Belgian top team, Club Brugge, is a new face in the group. Germany –based defender Kevin Akpoguma also returns to the fold.

Three –time African champions Nigeria and two-time African champions Algeria clash at the 40,000 Stade Olympique in Oran on Tuesday, 27^th September, with the invited players expected to confluence in the city of Constantine on Monday, 19^th September.

ALL THE INVITED PLAYERS:

Goalkeepers: Francis Uzoho, Maduka Okoye, Adeleye Adebayo

Defenders: William Ekong, Kenneth Omeruo, Chidozie Awaziem, Olaoluwa Aina, Calvin Bassey, Zaidu Sanusi, Kevin Akpoguma, Leon Balogun

Midfielders: Wilfred Ndidi, Frank Onyeka, Alex Iwobi, Richard Onyedika

Forwards: Ahmed Musa, Kelechi Iheanacho, Moses Simon, Samuel Chukwueze, Ademola Lookman, Henry Onyekuru, Taiwo Awoniyi, Chidera Ejuke, Cyriel Dessers, Terem Moffi