Secretary of the Rivers State Table Tennis Association, Tekenah Lulu-Poku has harped on the need for greater attention  ment in the state.
Lulu-Poku, who spoke in an interview on Monday in Port Harcourt, said that without adequate attention on grassroots sports, getting new talents to replace aging ones and popularising sports would be a near impossible task.
According to him, the grassroots is the bedrock of sports, saying that, the development of sports in the state should begin from the grassroots.
“We can only achieve meaningful development and huge success in sports if and only if, we include the grassroots in the sports development programmes”, the table tennis scribe pointed out.
He explained that it would be safer and better to hunt potential talents and groom them ahead of future engagements than always scouting for them at the last minute.
He said that, the state should host festivals at the local and state levels annually to avail the sports council the opportunity to discover talents for the state who can replace those athletes who have past their prime.
“It is better to “catch them young” and groom them for the future, this would help to stop the “fire brigade” approach of things in the sporting industry and also overcome poaching during competitions”, he said.
Meanwhile, the table tennis association is preparing for the forthcoming National Under-17 Championship scheduled to hold August in Kwara State.
The table tennis scribed disclosed that preparations are in progress, saying that, the efforts that have so far been put into achieving their goal would be possible, when approval has been given by the state government to participate in the competition.
“The association has done their part by “embarking on the necessary preparations we now expect a go ahead order from the ministry of sports”, he said.