Nigeria under 23 Handball national and under 18 Handball teams are enroute Varna, Bulgaria and Pristina, Kosovo ahead of the 5th IHF Emerging Nations Championship and the IHF Trophy’s Intercontinental Phase.
The two teams left the Muritala International Airport, Lagos on Monday for the IHF Emerging Nations which commences from March 11-15, 2025 in Varna, Bulgaria and the IHF Trophy’s Intercontinental Phase holding in Pristina Kosovo respectively.
The two teams had over a week extensive training camp; the under 23 team under the tutelage of Coach Solomon Yola were in the Package B of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja while the Under 18 at the Rowe Park Sports Center, Yaba, Lagos where their Gaffer, Coach Emeka Nnamani was taking charge of their preparation.
The Under 23 men team will begin their emerging nations championship campaign against the United States of America at 1:30pm on Tuesday and then play Moldova at 3:45pm on Wednesday Their final group B match is against Moldova on Thursday at 1:30pm. All matches will be played at the Palace of Sports and Culture in Varna, Bulgaria which is a replica of Nigeria’s National Theatre in Lagos.
The team knows two of their opponents well in this level as they had lost to the Americans in one of the group games in their very first edition of the Emerging Nations Championship hosted in 2019 in Georgia and had defeated Azerbaijan in another group match in the 2023 edition which was also hosted in Bulgaria.
For the under 18 team, they are in group B wherein they will play Kosovo and New Caledonia. They will begin their campaign on Wednesday against New Caledonia at 4pm and they will also play Kosovo on Thursday at the same time. All matches will be played at the Palace of Youth and Sports in Pristina, Kosovo.
