Nigeria put aside their previous defeats at the 10th IHF Women’s Under 18 Handball World Championship ongoing in Chuzhou, China, to earn a well-deserved 29-21 victory over Angola.
The Coach Shittu Adewunmi Agboola’s tutored team had defeated Angola the third place of the Africa Women’s Under 18 Handball Championship in Monastir last year and continued in the same stride to extend their win over one of the best teams in Africa.
It wasn’t a stroll in the park though for the girls as they had to defend resolutely against the onslaught of Angola pivot player Matutuzila Nsimba Miguel Afonso forcing her and her teammates to make forced turnovers to win the first half 11-9.
The second half was better off as Nigeria’s Women Under 18 team came into their element as they scored several of the goals especially from the near side of the goal to win the half 18-12 and essentially the match 29-21.
Statistically, Nigeria has 57% shots efficiency from the 51 shots wherein they scored 29 goals; they have 75% near shot efficiency especially from Damilola Akinlade who was the star of the team on the day. They also had 90% 6 meter shots efficiency as well.
Thus, Nigeria’s Women Under 18 Handball team thus finished third with 2 points in group B behind Croatia and Montenegro.
Coach Shittu praised his team resilience to get back to winning ways after two consecutive defeats.
“I praise my team for their resilience in coming back to winning ways despite their previous losses and doing so against Angola who are one of the best handballing countries in Africa shows that we can set aside our losses to attain greatness” Coach Shittu said.
Nigeria will now play in the classification competition known as the President Cup in Group 1 alongside Austria, Chile and Angola. They will play Chile on Sunday.
