Sports
Lagos Moves To Reclaim Top Spot At Sports Festival
Lagos State sports administrators and athletes say they will use the 17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt now postponed till June to reclaim their number one position at the national scene.
Basking in the euphoria of their successes at the zonal eliminations for the sports fiesta, they said that they were ready for the competition.
Although they have not moved into the final phase of camping, the officials and athletes training at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre, Yaba, said their 2010 performances was motivated by Governor Babatunde Fashola.
The Chairman of the Lagos State Sports Council, Agboola Dabiri, recalled that the state was pushed to the seventh positions in the 2006 and 2009 editions of the festival in Ogun and Kaduna states.
“This development has fired us up to initiate moves to come back to top other states.
“To achieve this, we started a number of grassroots talent hunt programmes and competitions to discover athletes for the state and ultimately for the nation.
“The government gave us its full backing financially and morally, while some individuals and NGOs joined the revival effort,” Agboola said.
Some of the activities sponsored by the government are the clinics for all the coaches in the different sports, the Sydney Asiodu Athletics Competition and the All Comers Athletics Meet.
Others are the Lagos Basketball Tournament for Secondary Schools, Karate Championships, the Lagos Speaker’s Cup Football Competition, The Governor’s Cup Football Competition and the State Sports Festival.
The rest are the Governors Cup International Squash Championships, the Monthly Saturday Boxing Show and the Inter-Local Government Councils Table tennis Championships.
In swimming, the Governors Special Adviser on Grassroots Sports Development, Wale Oladunjoye, sponsored the Lagos State Swimming Competition and the children of late Phil Ebosie sponsored the Phil Ebosie Memorial Swimming Competition.
The annual Asoju Oba Cup Table Tennis Championships sponsored by Sir Molade Okoya-Thomas and the Cowbell Para-soccer Competitions promoted by Promasidor Nigeria Ltd also held.
The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria also sponsored a basketball clinic with a promise that it would do the same for all the sports.
Agboola told newsmen that having undertaken these activities, the athletes were ready to improve on their zonal eliminations performances to win the festival.
“Gov. Babatunde Fashola is the brain behind the successes we achieved in 2010 and the only way we can reciprocate his gesture and efforts at sports development is by reclaiming the state’s lost glory.
“I urge the athletes to train well, be focused and ensure they win the sports fiesta,” he said.
In spite of these efforts, the swimming pool and the boxing gymnasium at the Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre still remain in deplorable state.
The contracts for their refurbishing were awarded but they have yet to be functional.
The sport’s authorities said that government would expedite action in reviving the facilities to ensure that the abundant talents in swimming and boxing would not defect to other states.
The council’s Head Coach, Kally Isaac-Dagogo also told newsmen that the technical department would ensure that athletes were given the best training for them to perform optimally.
Athletes who spoke with Tidesports were confident that the state would rule the sports festival because of their level of preparation and government’s welfare package.
Temitope Adesina, a basketball player said she was in good shape for the festival, adding that the basketball coach had engaged them in intensive training sessions.
“Although we are on course but the final phase of training for the festival should start in earnest,” she said.
Jide Omotayo, a table tennis player praised the government for its grassroots talent hunt programmes which, he said, had increased the state’s bank of athletes.
“I think Lagos has performed well in 2010. Our welfare remains top on their agenda and this will spur us into action,” Omotayo said.
Eniola Adejare, a swimmer scored the council’s performance low because the swimmers lacked competitions and the swimming pool in a deplorable state.
“We have lost our colleagues to other states because of the lack of competition and bad facilities.
“I think serious measures should be taken to arrest this defection of swimmers for us to have a successful outing at the National Sports Festival,” Adejare said.
Hon Dike who spoke with sports journalists shortly after the flag off the 2024 edition of Chairman’s Football Unity Tournament at Botem Tai in Tai LGA, said the tournament is an annual event to promote peace and unity in Tai as well identify budding talents in the area for global competition.
The opening ceremony of the tournament was more like a carnival was witnessed by huge crowd including prominent indigenes of Ogoni Kingdom, sports lovers and people from all works of life.
The LGA boss revealed that special sports committee will be setup in the area to work out modalities to strengthen sports development in Tai.
He advised the participants in the tournament from various wards in the LGA to play the game by the rules and conduct themselves in a peaceful and orderly manner and use the opportunity to showcase their talents.
Hon Dike further disclosed that his administration will also give priority attention to skills development among the youth to enhance their human capacity and promote enterprise development in the area.
Earlier in his address the Chairman of Tai LGA Football Council, Elder Wisdom Gorgor said the annual football competition has been a unifying factor in Tai LGA that need to be sustained to forge more unity and development in the area.
He urged the participants to see the competition as an opportunity to embrace football as a full career and earn sustainable livelihood.
Elder Gorgor who commended the Chairman of Tai LGA, Hon Dike for his visionary leadership and tremendous development achievements recorded in the LGA under his administration, appealled to the Chairman to build a Mini Sports Stadium in the area to promote sporting activities.
The training was held at the Sani Abacha Stadium Indoor Basketball Court in Kano last Saturday.
According to the Vice President and Head of NBA Nigeria, Gbemisola Abudu, the event was part of the league’s commitment to growing broader basketball ecosystem in Nigeria and making the game more accessible across the country.
“Our first Jr. NBA clinic in Kano speaks to our commitment to growing the game in Nigeria and creating more opportunities for boys and girls to learn and play the game,” Abudu said.
“Nigeria has a rich basketball history and abundance of talent, which is evident every time you watch an NBA game. We look forward to continuing to engage with basketball stakeholders, business leaders and members of the community to further the game’s reach and impact on young people around the country,” she added.
The 2024 basketball initiative clinics of NBA Nigeria also included the league’s inaugural Jr. NBA elite camp for 150 boys and age-16 girls held at the American International School in Lagos in July.
Others include the NBA’s building of 1,000 courts in Africa over the next decade, Nigeria’s Festival Coins and Salubata named the top two winning businesses at NBA Africa Triple-Double Accelerator’s inaugural Demo Day in New York City held last September, and the third edition of “NBA Meets Art,” a curated installation celebrating basketball through the lens of Nigerian art and culture as part of West Africa’s premier art fair Art X Lagos, held in November.
Central to this vision is the federation’s investment in capacity building, evident in the just-concluded one-week Level 1 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Coaching Course, which marked a significant milestone for Nigerian badminton.
Held in Abuja, the course brought together 13 young coaches from across Nigeria. The last time such a course was held in the country was in 2017, making this a historic and transformative step.
The training was facilitated by the Badminton Confederation of Africa (BCA) in partnership with the Badminton Federation of Nigeria (BFN) and conducted by Dr. Ahmed Radah, the BCA Development Manager.
Radah, impressed by the talent he witnessed, praised Nigeria’s potential.
“Nigeria is blessed with immense talent and a strong badminton tradition. I believe this country has what it takes to dominate on the global stage,” he remarked.