20th October, 2010
With the commencement date of the next National Sports Festival still a few months away, one of the participating states, Team Lagos are already perfecting strategies for an outstanding outing at the bi-annual sporting event.
Lagos State used to be among the leading states in the previous festivals until few years ago when Edo and Delta left Lagos behind. P.M.Sports gathered that the officials of Team Lagos have started serious work on putting their athletes in top shape. “Plans are underway by Lagos to regain her leadership role in the festival, while a clear focus of developing athletes that will not only be useful to the state but the country is in the process”, an official said.
Dewunmi Ogunsanya, the State Director of Sports said although the state might have not finished among the top three in the last two Sports Festivals, it has remain the breading ground for young athletes that will take over from the ageing athletes.
Ogunsanya expressed dissatisfaction over the attitude of some states, whose target is to win at all cost, noting that the festival was put together as a developmental programme by the founding fathers.
He said Lagos remains steadfast in the discovery and development of young athletes, hence the state’s decision to drop elite athletes from her team to the 2006 Gateway Games in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
The state’s commitment in the discovery of young athletes and developing them manifested during the State’s swimming trials held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos with the average age of the swimmers between 11and 17years.
Chairman of the State Sports Council, Agboola Dabiri who was part of the crowd at the trails expressed their determination to go for young athletes, who will do the state proud and also make it big in sports in the nearest future.
Dabiri revealed that the state athletes will soon go into close camping for proper development. He reasoned that if all the states of the federation can concentrate on grassroots sports development, the country will be better for it instead of waiting for Lagos to discover youngsters for them to lure away with empty promises.
“All of us know that the festival is all about bringing young and talented athletes to National prominence, which is in the interest of the country.
“But some states in this country are not working in this direction. What we are doing in training is purely developmental and the young athletes would benefit from such catch them young programme. This is not the case with the others, who are waiting till a few days to the festival, when they start porching athletes of other states that have invested in their youth programmes.
“They do all these with the desperation to win and justify their positions. That’s not the way to go about developing sports in this countryâ€, Dabiri a former Chairman of Surulere Local government said.
The Director of Sports further said that the council is working towards presenting athletes that will compete favourably with their counterparts from other states during the festival coming up in Port Harcourt, Rivers State next year.
—Wale Joseph
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