Nigeria’s Under 23 and Under 18 Men Handball Teams have begun intensive preparatory camps ahead of two top International handball championships.
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The national under 23 men handball team under the tutelage of Coaches Solomon Yola and Adebayo Yekini are presently undergoing intensive training at the Package B of the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja ahead of the 5th IHF Emerging Nations Championship which will hold from March 11th to 16th 2025 in Vana, Bulgaria.
The National Under 18 Men Handball team led by Coaches Emeka Nnamani and Joshua Ayo, have 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 12th to 16th of March 2025.
The National Under 18 Handball team are 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 Coach Emeka Nnamani’s tutored team will begin their campaign against New Caledonia on Wednesday March 12, 2025 and will also play Kosovo as well in the preliminary stage.
For the National Men Under 23 team led by Coach Solomon 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 from March 11th to 16th 2025 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, 2025 and will play Azerbaijan the next day and Moldova thereafter.
The IHF Emerging Nations Championship is organised by the International Handball Federation (IHF) 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 have finished second on both occasions.
“President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Mr. Samuel Ocheho, has reiterated the Federation’s commitment to restoring Nigeria’s place in the global handball community, stating that ‘sending two national teams to international competitions is the perfect way to do so, despite the herculean tasks ahead.'”
“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 “.
“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 dettered and we know that this is the way to go for us to be of reckoning once again in the international handball community ” Ocheho said.
