Kaduna State governor, Patrick Yakowa, is expected to declare open the 33rd edition of the African handball club championships in Kaduna, north central Nigeria, on Friday, October 21st, 2011.
Teams participating in the championships have started arriving.
Speaking to journalists in kaduna, the President of the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Alhaji Yusuf Dauda said: “We have taken all the necessary steps to make sure that we host a hitch free championship and I can assure you that we have done everything humanly possible to make it a success. Almost all the teams have arrived and all the sub-committees of the Local Organising Committee are putting finishing touches to their jobs.”
He added, “We are expecting each team to come with about sixteen players and possibly four officials and they will stay throughout the competition until the closing ceremony. I expect Kaduna to be a beehive of activity during these ten days of the championship”
Dauda urged Nigerians to come out enmasse to support the Nigerian teams and enjoy the championship in general.
In the opening match of the championship, Niger United of Minna will trade tackles with the sole male representative from Congo DR while in the female category, the Grasshoppers of Owerri will also lock horns with the female team of Congo DR.
Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Handball (CAHB) will in the closing ceremony give an award to the former President of Handball Federation of Nigeria, General Ishola Williams (rtd) for his enormous contributions to the game of handball in Nigeria and Africa in general.
Gen. Williams (Rtd) who is currently the Secretary General of Commonwealth Handball Association (CHA) brought the game of handball to Nigeria in 1978 alongside late Colonel Isa Mohammed and further saw to its development which remarkably produced its 1,000 000th player in November, 2009 at Isanlu, Kogi State.
With this award, Williams has joined the league of the Hall of Famers in African handball which include Dr Hassan Moustafa who incidentally is the current president of International Handball Federation (IHF).
