Spartans flag football team sensation, Kate Johnson
was full of excitement after helping her side win season two of Showtime
Bowl Series in Lagos, but announced her retirement from the sport after the
victory.
Sports247.ng reports that Johnson is one of the top
female stars in flag football, which took another historic turn last Sunday,
with a pulsating final at Meadow Hall in Lekki, Lagos.
The innovative sport, which is a variant of American
Football, involves players removing flags from an opponent’s body, instead of
tackling them to the ground, while equally aiming to score points with an oval
ball.
This year’s competition, which was tagged Super Bowl
Series XI, had a long roll call of players spread across 12 clubs, with each of
the squads competing as mixed teams.
The competing teams were Warriors, Outlaws Athletics,
Spartans, Panthers Sport, Lagos Raptors, Off-Season Athletics, Lagos Rebels, LA
Knights, Titans Athletics, Lagos Mavericks, Wolverines and Lagos Hawks.
In Sunday’s final, Spartans defeated Warriors 58-53 to
emerge winners of the annual competition’s second edition, and Kate Johnson
admitted it was an exciting day for her.
The exuberant lass, who played as a centre for
Spartans, declared: “This is our second time in a row, and I feel so good.
“It means the world to us. We’ve been the underdogs
for the whole season, but now we have our win.”
She, however, concluded by declaring that winning the
competition for a second straight year running was a fulfilment for her, and it
was time for her to quit.
“It’s two wins, back-to-back, and I am done with
football. I have retired,” Johnson stated.
She will now join her teammates in sharing the
winners’ cash prize of N12m from the total package of N20m that had earlier
been declared by the organisers, Showtime Flag Football League (SFFL).
Other stipulated cash prizes from the contest that was
staged with a 7-on-7 co-ed format were N4m for second placed, N2.5m to third
position, and N2m for fourth.
The teams that finished fifth to eighth got N1m each,
while ninth took N400,000 and N300,000 went to 10th placed, with N200,000 for
11th and N100,000 to the squad that ended on 12th spot.
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