Sun, Vanguard Battle For Med-View/NUJ Media Games Final Ticket

TAIWO ADELU

Some journalists at one of the games

The Sun and Vanguard Newspapers will today at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos battle for the final ticket in this year’s Med-View/NUJ Media Games.

This is the second time that both teams would be meeting in this year’s edition of the annual games organized by the Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

When both teams met in the group stage, the Sun Newspaper ran away with a lone goal victory.

Spokesman of the Sun Newspaper, Philip Nwosu said his players are ready to confirm their superiority over Vanguard Newspaper.

“We will prove to all and sundry that our victory over them in the group stage was not a fluke. My players are ready to beat them again and that is what is going to happen today.

“We’ve come this far and prepared very well for this year’s event and Vanguard cannot stop us from playing in the final” he said.

But chairman of Vanguard NUJ Chapel, Solomon Nwoke, said they were unlucky in the first match that gave victory to the Sun and they’ve since corrected the mistakes in that match.

“We played very well in the first match but unlucky to lose the match. We’ve corrected the mistakes from that and you will see a new and rejuvenated Vanguard team when we meet in the semifinal.

“We will definitely pay them back with an outright victory,” said Nwoke, who added that the trophy belongs to them.

In the other semifinal, defending champions, Lagos Information Chapel will square up against Voice of Nigeria (VON) Chapel to determine who will play in the final.

Athletics event will take the centre stage Friday as athletes would participate in the 100m, 200m and 4 x 100m at the mainbowl of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Meanwhile, Ajeast Nigeria Limited, bottlers of Big Cola soft drinks has boosted this year’s Med-View/NUJ Media Games with a donation of N1m.

Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) Lagos State Council, ‘Deji Elumoye disclosed Thursday that the company has promised to support the annual event of the journalists.

“The donation when eventually released will go a long way in the organisation of the Games and we hope our relationship with the company will be a lasting one,” said Elumoye.

Reacting to the donation, Marketing Executive of the company, Perpetual Ohiri, said the company decided to support the Games because of the roles of journalists in the country.

“This is a new relationship and I want to say that it has come to stay. This is just the beginning and by God’s grace, we will improve on our donation during next year’s event.

“We all know what is going on in the country, hence we could have done more than this but definitely, next year’s edition will be bigger and better,” Ohiri said.

Over 200 journalists are participating in this year’s edition of the Games in seven different events which include football, athletics, scrabble, chess, draught, ayo and table tennis.