By Victor Kanayo
Nigeria on Thursday kicked off their IHF Trophy Intercontinental Championship campaign with an easy 46-30 win over Nicaragua in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The national U18 male handball team started the match with a lot of zeal, which ensured they had over 81% near shot efficiency of players such as; Tahir Ahmed Lawal and Olawale Ajibike to comfortably win the first half 19-9.
The second half wasn’t a stroll in the park as such for Nigeria, as Nicaragua came out in an effort to turn the match around for themselves led by star player, Zaymond Estiven Perez Sincler, who was forcing Nigeria into turnovers to get 7 meters shot efficiency amongst other improvement.
But the master stroke tactics of Nigeria’s Manager, Coach Emeka Nnamani, kept them at bay to rally back and take control as Nigeria won the second half 27-21.
Overall, Nigeria had 62 shots overall with a 74% all shots efficiency as against Nicaragua’s 56% with the team essentially winning the match through the 6 metres, near shots, wing shots and more of fast breaks.
Nigeria will play Guadaloupe in their next match, according to a statement by the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN).
The federation further revealed its intention to expose Nigerian Handball youngsters to more grassroots oriented developmental programmes.
