As Nigeria losses her first coach to first Olympics team event
Mr. Ephraim Chukwuemeka
By Rasheed Adewuyi
The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) joins the Handball family in mourning top Olympic Coach Ephraim C Chukwuemeka, 82, who led the National Handball team Team to the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Chukwuemeka was also a former chairman of the Abia State Football Association oldest serving FA chairman in the country.
In a statement, Tony Nezianya, NOC Public Relations Officer, said that Coach Chukwuemeka, who died on January 2 following brief ill health in Isikwuato, Abia State, was one of the two coaches that led the first-ever national team sport to the Olympic Games.
Alongside his partner, Late Coach Paulinus Chukwu, from their days at the Grasshopper’s Handball club of Owerri, they led the national team to the Barcelona Games.
They had paired to lead the squad that defeated the then-highly-rated Angolan side at the African Championships in Egypt in 1991 to qualify for the Olympic Games, making handball the first team sport from the country to be eligible for the Olympics Games.
During his illustrious sporting career that spanned over three decades, Chukwuemeka doubled as FIFA Badged Soccer Referee.
A well-known patron of the NOC, Dr. Lanre Glover was then the National Chairman of the Handball Association of Nigeria (HAN), and Nezianya (Tony), the spokesman of the Association, during the feat.
According to Glover, the coaches consistently did well with the popular Grasshoppers. The popular thought then was that they deserved the right to be provided with the opportunity to lead the National squad to the Games.
Before then, no Nigerian team sports had ever made it to the Olympic Games.
Dr. Toyin Esther Aluko, the Chaperon of the team to the Barcelona Games, remarked that Coach Chukwuemeka lived a good life. He knew how to care for himself while donning his golden B red hallmark Golden bracelets.
Coach Chukwuemeka will be buried on February 10 at his ancestral home, Amiyi, Obilohia Isikwuato, Abia State, according to his son in Law, Christian Ihememegbulam.
