6th January, 2011
Adopt-A-Talent Sports programme will begin the New Year with a vigorous campaign to scout for hidden talents in Lagos State.
Spokesman of the coaches coordinating the programme, Joe Mensah, said: “We would be embarking on an intensive scouting exercise to beef up the number of athletes discovered in 2010. This time around, we would be more meticulous about age cheats in order to achieve credible results in our programme.â€
Adopt-A-Talent Sports Programme is a project of the Office of the Senior Special Assistant on Grassroots Sports Development to Governor Raji Fashola headed by Prince Wale Oladunjoye..
The programme has relative successes in its formative months, producing an amateur boxer of note for the Governor’s Boxing Belt in December 2010 in person of Christian Abua, who lost narrowly to a national champion in a boxing contest at Mobolaji Johnson Rowe Park Sports Centre, Yaba on Boxing Day.
Pint-sized table tennis marvel, Summer Sadiq also had his tutorials under Coach Wale Orukotan of Adopt-A-Talent Sports Programme before storming 2010 Asoju Oba of Lagos Table Tennis Championship, where he was adjudged the Most Promising Table Tennis Star of the tournament.
After a long break for Christmas and New Year, athletes and their coaches are expected to resume in the first week of January 2011 at their various training camps.
“We would start the programme by sending home those who failed to meet our required standard and begin new scouting exercise through scientific processes to curb age cheats,†said Mensah, a renowned Nigerian boxing coach.