Abagi 'Abi' Bienose Ekoku (born 13 April 1966) is a former
track and field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping eve ...
athlete in both
discus and
shot put, as well as a former professional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
footballer.
Sporting career
Athletics
Ekoku represented Great Britain at the
European Athletics Championships
The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletics Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe.
Editions
First held, for men ...
and was
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
’s National Champion in the
Discus held in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...
in 1992
and UK Champion in the early 1990s. He represented
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in the discus and shot put event, at the
1990 Commonwealth Games in
Auckland
Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
.
Rugby league
Ekoku spent six years as a professional
rugby league
Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...
footballer as a . He started his rugby league career with the
London Crusaders, playing on a part-time basis whilst also lecturing in further education. He was signed by
Halifax in July 1995, and played in the inaugural
Super League season with the club. He joined the
Bradford Bulls
The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...
in 1997, helping the club win the Super League that year, and also played in the
1997 Challenge Cup against
St. Helens at
Wembley
Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...
.
Ekoku announced his retirement from playing in 1998, and became chairman of the Rugby League Players' Association. He quit this post in 1999, and had a brief spell as chief executive at the
Keighley Cougars
The Keighley Cougars are a professional rugby league club from Keighley in West Yorkshire, England who compete in League 1, the third tier of English rugby league. Keighley's home ground, Cougar Park has a capacity of 7,800.
History
Early y ...
before being appointed by the
Bradford Bulls
The Bradford Bulls are a professional rugby league club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, playing in the Championship. They have won five Challenge Cups, six league championships and three World Club Challenges. The team jersey is predom ...
in a similar role. Ekoku was chief executive at Bradford Bulls from 2000 to 2003 - a period in which the club won the
Super League,
Challenge Cup and
World Club Championship.
Ekoku returned to the game in 2005 as an anti-doping tutor before being appointed team manager for
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...
in 2006. He stepped down from this role at the end of 2007.
Personal life
Ekoku's brother
Efan is a former professional
footballer
A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...
who represented the
Nigeria national football team
The Nigeria national football team represents Nigeria in men's international football. Governed by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), they are three-time Africa Cup of Nations winners, with their most recent title in 2013. In April 1994, ...
, and as of 2011 is a football pundit with
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...
.
References
External links
*
*
1966 births
Living people
Athletes (track and field) at the 1990 Commonwealth Games
Bradford Bulls players
British rugby league administrators
Commonwealth Games competitors for England
English male discus throwers
English male shot putters
English people of Nigerian descent
English rugby league players
Halifax R.L.F.C. players
London Broncos players
People educated at Liverpool College
Rugby league centres
Rugby league players from London
Rugby league wingers
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