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.