Meet Nigeria's first female Premier League Head Coach. 

Meet Jacqueline Niagwan Head coach of Plateau Peaks basketball club. The first female head coach of a Professional men's team in Nigeria.

Coach Jacque as she's fondly called was born and brought up in Jos, Plateau state. The female trojan matched out for Plateau Rocks basketball club, the female basketball club sponsored by the Plateau State Sports council for 22 years from 1989 to 2011. She never played for any other club throughout her career and suprisingly never made a national team appearance, although she was called up once.

Her coaching career started in 2007, when she stood on the sidelines to spearhead her childhood club's promotion from Division 1 into the Zenith Bank female basketball league in her first year in charge, she equally laced her boots for 4 more years to fight for a league title to show her young girls that "truly talk is cheap". But after a couple of final 8 appearances, she pulled the plug on her playing career and continued leading from the sidelines.

Coach Jacque began to create waves in the men's coaching world when she took the Plateau State male basketball team to her first podium finish in 33 years at the EKO 2012 National Sports festival. Winning bronze, defeating host Lagos State in the 3rd place match. Her achievement was deemed remarkable by the Plateau State Sports council who without much ado named her Head coach of their Premier league men's team Plateau Peaks with immediate effect.

It took Jacqueline Niagwan just two years to make her impact felt in the male dominated Nigerian Premier league. She orchestrated her Peaks qualification for the 2014 Final 8 playoffs with an enviable record of second best defensive team in the entire league with just 747 points allowed in 14 regular season games. (Champions Kano Pillars allowed 817 points in the same number of games)Her strong defensive philosophy carried her team all the way. Making her the first female coach not only to handle a male Premier league team, but the first female coach, to qualify for the Premier league national playoffs.

Jacqueline has indeed proved to the world and particularly her female counterparts that women can successfully coach men. Her achievements ask if truly it's really a man's world? No matter what your answer is, this exemplary role model deserves to be celebrated for her achievements.

 -By Afrobasket

Glasgow 2014: Winifred wins silver for Nigeria

NDIDI Winifred on Saturday in the women’s weightlifting 58kg claimed the silver medal at the ongoing 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland to increase Nigeria’s medal haul to three so far.

Winifred was beaten to the gold medal by Zoe Smith of England, who also set new games record with her 92kg lift in snatch and 118kg in clean and jerk with a total lift of 210kg.

The Nigerian lifter, who lifted 90kg in snatch, had failed in her second attempt to lift 115kg in clean and jerk, only to lift 116kg in her third attempt, before Smith eventually dusted her with 118kg lift which the Briton celebrated with a backflip.

Michaela Breeze of Wales settled for the bronze medal with 93kg lift in snatch, 109kg in clean and jerk and 202kg in total lift.

Meanwhile, Winifred apparently disappointed by her silver finish wore a mournful look on the podium during the medal presentation.

Nigeria had on Thursday through Nkechi Opara won bronze medal in the women’s weightlifting 48kg and gold medal on Friday through Chika Joy Amalaha in the women’s weighlifting 53kg.

Clash of Nigerian football Giants as Enyimba and Dolphins make Fed Cup Final

Enyimba and Dolphinshave both reached the Federation Cup final after defeating Giwa FC and Prime FC by identical 1-0 margins in Thursday’s semi finals.

The two favourites will now face each other in the final on August 16 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.

Cameroonian forward Raphael Boumsong scored the lone goal for Enyimba at the Gateway Stadium in Abeokuta while Ebube Opokwu’s goal helped Dolphins to victory at the Fifa Goal Project pitch in Abuja.

Giwa and Prime each had a man sent off during the game. The Jos Elephants lost the services of Ifeanyi Anaemena for his poor tackle on the Aba Millionaires’ Chinonso Okonkwo.

The Ogbomosho side also had Abdullah Fatai sent off as their fairy tale run came to an end.

The Aba Elephants now have an opportunity to win back to back titles on August 16 when they face Dolphins who have reached the final for the first time in seven years.

This is an answer to the prayers of Stanley Eguma the Dolphins coach who wished for such a blockbuster final against the two-time Caf champions league winners.

Glasgow 2014, Nigerian Flag can't stop flying

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   Yet again Blessing Okagbare has proven her value to Nigeria by winning the gold medal in the finals of the women's 200m event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
   
   Okagbare made it a sprint double in Glasgow,replicating her feat in the 100m event in Monday,to power way to victory in the final of the 200m event on Thursday with a time of 22.25secs.
   
   It was an effortless win for the Nigerian athlete who had no difficulty racing to the finish line in a triumphant victory.
   
   Okagbare with her win on the night made it a sprint double at the Glasgow 2014 Games,putting Nigeria on the map of greatness.
   
   Meanwhile in the Women's Long Jump event, Ese Brume achieved a 6.56m leap to win Nigeria's second gold medal of the night.
   
   Okagbare would have competed in the Long Jump event but it clashed with her 200m,so she chose the latter over the former.
   
   However it served to announce the arrival of another Nigerian athlete who defeated all comers to win herself a gold medal.
   
   Meanwhile in the final Men's 400m hurdles,Chris Morton gave a good account of himself to finish 5th with a time of 49.65secs.

Shame, Succes, Pride, Lows and Happy ever...

Nigerian athletes have sincerely made the country so proud and not minding the lack of support earlier from the sports ministry.
Raking up 8 gold medals with two from the latest Queen of the tracks- Blessing Okagbare who won her 100m and 200m with 10.85 and 22.25s times respectively. Nigeria now has 25 points and are the 2nd ranked African team on the medals table behind only to South Africa and 8th in overall table.
The athletes have continued to push up the medals table up from the 11th they were at the beginning of the events.
Now 8th on the table, they are sligthly higher than previous tournament standing which they finsihed at 9th behind Kenya and South Africa. The previuos tournament in Delhi, India saw Nigeria post a total haul of 11 Gold medals and 35 points overall. But with Okagbare who is also good at the Long Jump still in the run for the event and other events coming up, Nigeria's Chances at this year's event in Glasgow Scotland still looks bright though.
  Back home rewards won't be out of sight as many would have been accustomed to Nigeria's manner of rewarding after performance to associate with success but prior to it, was nothing to write home about. What could have been had they been prepered and motivated than they were now.

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare shocked Veronica Campbell-Brown, to win gold in the final of the women’s 100m this evening.

The sprinter finished the race at a time of 10.85 seconds, setting a new Commonwealth Games record in Glasgow. Jamaica's Veronica Campbell-Brown came second and Kerron Stewart third.

Nigeria and South Africa Leads Africa's Medal Charge at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow

#	Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia	18	14	19	51	View medals by sport for Australia
2	England	17	14	14	45	View medals by sport for England
3	Scotland	11	6	8	25	View medals by sport for Scotland
4	Canada	7	3	6	16	View medals by sport for Canada
5	India	5	7	5	17	View medals by sport for India
6	South Africa	3	5	6	14	View medals by sport for South Africa
7	New Zealand	3	3	8	14	View medals by sport for New Zealand
8	Wales	2	7	8	17	View medals by sport for Wales
9	Cyprus	2	1	2	5	View medals by sport for Cyprus
10	Malaysia	1	2	3	6	View medals by sport for Malaysia
11	Nigeria	1	2	1	4	View medals by sport for Nigeria
12	Singapore	1	0	0	1	View medals by sport for Singapore
13	Camroon	0	1	1	2	View medals by sport for Cameroon
14	Bangladesh	0	1	0	1	View medals by sport for Bangladesh
14	Isle of Man	0	1	0	1	View medals by sport for Isle of Man
14	Jamaica	0	1	0	1	View medals by sport for Jamaica
14	Pakistan	0	1	0	1	View medals by sport for Pakistan
14	Papua New Guinea	0	1	0	1	View medals by sport for Papua New Guinea
14	Sri Lanka	0	1	0	1	View medals by sport for Sri Lanka
20	Ghana	0	0	1	1	View medals by sport for Ghana
20	Mauritius	0	0	1	1	View medals by sport for Mauritius
20	Northern Ireland	0	0	1	1	View medals by sport for Northern Ireland
20	Samoa	0	0	1	1	View medals by sport for Samoa
20	Zambia	0	0	1	1	View medals by sport for Zambia

LAST UPDATED 27 JUL 2014 00:40 UK