Sportspersons: Top 10

See Nigerian sportspersons who made our Top-10’s list:

Victor Oladipo

The pre-season was put in place to help players and teams in general warm-up for real-time play into the midseason. However, for Victor Oladipo there’s clearly no difference as the player looks like he’s already in midseason form.

Oladipo is a very dedicated professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers who have since the past season experienced a significant growth in their overall performance with the Nigerian right at the forefront of it. In the last season, Oladipo became the fifth member of the Pacers organization to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

Aruna Quadri

For his outstanding form and his recent invitation to the 2018 Men’s World Cup in France, Africa’s foremost tennis player, Aruna Quadri, makes our list. Aruna qualified for the championships courtesy of his world ranking.

An invitation sent to the player by Zena Sim, head of World Cup and ITTF Challenge, read, “On behalf of the ITTF, we would like to invite Quadri Aruna to participate in the Liebherr 2018 Men’s World Cup in Paris from 19-21 Oct.”

Divine Oduduru

This five-time African Junior Champion makes our list for very well deserved reasons. After a rather lacklustre move from the junior to the senior leagues, Divine Oduduru’s form on the track began to wear off as the days went by. However, in a breakthrough moment for the athlete, he got a scholarship to the University of Texas and ever since the Nigerian has held nothing back in making his home country proud.

From all indications, there’s a lot more we’ll still see the athlete achieve in coming years.

Adeleke Akinyemi

Nigerian and Ventspils forward, Adeleke Akinyemi, makes our list for being very brave and apt for his Latvian side in the past weeks. Akinyemi took his tally to seven goals in the UEFA Europa League on Thursday after he scored in the 65th minute. However, Ventspils crashed out of the qualifiers following their defeat against Girondin Bordeaux.

Akinyemi had scored six goals in two games against Albanian side, Luftëtari FC.

Adaora Elonu

Adaora Nnenna Elonu, is a Nigerian-American women’s basketball forward, who currently plays for CB Avenida and Nigeria’s D’Tigresses. She won the NCAA Championship for Texas A&M in 2011. The 28-year old top gun for D’Tigress was part of the Gold winning Nigerian team at the 2017 Afrobasket Championships, and a member o the tournament’s top ten players.

Adora along with her colleagues have been quite effective as a team for Nigeria. Despite losing their last friendly, D’Tigress will be facing Jackets Pro All-Stars yet again in a friendly at the Riverside Epic Centre, Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday which is another buildup game to 2018 FIBA Women’s World Cup in Spain.

Sarah Ogoke

This amazing basketball and Adora Elonu have more in common than just being D’Tigress superstars. Sarah Ogoke is also an American-born Nigerian pro-basketballer and also part of the Gold winning Nigerian team at the 2017 Afrobasket Championships.

28-year-old Sarah plays for Celta de Vigo.

Ike Diogu

D’Tigers captain, Ike Diogu, makes our list for the third time in a row for his iconic performance for the Nigerian senior men’s basketball team.

The team will be looking to make a world statement at the men’s FIBA World Cup. With Ike Diogu right in front of the battles, D’Tigers would have to face on their way to the top.

Blessing Okagbare

Despite the recent drama around the athlete, she still has a place on our list for being very dedicated to her cause.

Fans at the Asaba 2018 expressed their disappointment at what could have been the showdown of the century if Blessing Okagbare had not pulled out of a race against Ivorian athlete Ta Lou. Ta Lou went on to win the women’s 100m final at the event with no fitting contender in sight.

Alex Iwobi

After an impressive but short-lived performance for Nigeria at the 2018 Russia World Cup, Super Eagles and Arsenal forward, Alex Iwobi has got his game back on, helping Arsenal defeat Chelsea on penalty (6-5) in Wednesday’s International Championships Cup fix, after the match had ended in a 1-1- stalemate at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Iwobi scored a sudden death penalty shot for Arsenal after Ruben Loftus Cheek had missed his chance to hand the Gunners another pre-season win.

Victor Moses

Victor Moses made his second appearance for Chelsea against Arsenal and did well to score from the penalty spot during the shootout.

However, his goal made no difference after Ruben failed to score and Iwobi consolidated Arsenal’s win.

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achem

Achem Samuel is a writer and a musician, he is passionate about God and also an ardent fan of tech, sports and music.

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