2nd Ayo Championship To Begin, Nov

The Traditional Sport of Nigeria (TSN) plans to organise the Second National Seaman’s Ayo Championship to hold in Oyo Town.

Fatai Odeshile, Marketing Director of Grand Oak Ltd, sponsors of the championship, told a news conference this week in Lagos that the event would hold between November 16 and November 22, 2011.

Odeshile said TSN and Grand Oak Ltd were aiming to elevate the game to a Commonwealth Games level.

He said the choice of venue of the 2011 edition was part of seaman’s commitment as Oyo as a historical and cultural centre of the Yoruba.

Odeshile added that the 2011 edition is a culmination of years of consistent propagation of the Ayo game by Seaman‘s Schnapps across the country through the Seaman Tota Tope Ayo competition.

“I am sure that some of us who are young at heart may still recall viewing the ‘Tota Tope Opon Ayo game’ on the erstwhile NTA channel 7,’’ he said.

Odeshile said the star prize of the current edition would be N100, 000.

The event would feature five categories: the singles, doubles, mixed-doubles, doubles in men and women.

He noted that the players should arrive the Oyo Town from all parts of the country and hoped that they would find the event interesting.

Odeshile said: “apart from the entrainment aspects of the Ayo, the underlining interest of Seaman’s would be traditional and cultural renaissance that the games of Ayo Olopan evoke’’.

He acknowledged the support of stakeholders, the TSN for belief in the cultural developmental of the event.