By Ado Salisu
Over 500 students from schools across the local government and local council development area of lagos participated in a one day United athletics series
The series put together by Culture Rush in collaboration with school games , LASUBEB, and the lagos State Sports Commission was to discover talents in the track and field event for both lagos State and the country at large
The series, which took place at the unilag sports Centre stadium of the University of Lagos, saw participants compete in 100 meters, 200 meters, 400 meters, 4×400 meters relay and long jump in the boys and girls category
Organiser of the championship Adeyemi Egbeoluwa says the decision to embark on the event was for early discovery of talents at the grassroots level who would be nurtured to take over from the ageing ones even as he commended the Lagos State Sports Commission and the State’s Universal Basic Education Board ( SUBEB) for their support.
He explained that there’s a plan to have an U-14, U-15, and U-16 categories and to also establish an academy where the selected children will be camped and trained to become world beaters in athletics.
He expressed happiness with the spirit of sportsmanship and enthusiasm expressed by the children even as he promised to leverage the successes recorded to move athletics forward at the grassroots level.
My decision to organise the championship is based on the fact that we pay attention to athletes in secondary schools institutions of Higher Learning while in the actual fact we are suppose to start from the primary schools in order to correct the link and discover these athletes early enough to nurture them to stardom as is done in other climes.
“What you’re witnessing today is the U-13 version because we want to catch them very early. We also plan to have an U-14, U-15 and U-16 series and there’s no going back on our plan to make Lagos State the hub of athletics not only in Nigeria but the entire West African sub- region”, he stressed
In her remark, Director School Sports Lagos State Dr. Mrs Oluyomi Oluwasanmi said the championship is in line with the state’s plan of ensuring that students combine education with sports , promising that it will be sustained as it will lead to further grassroots sports development in the state.
Education Secretary of Lagos Island Local Government Area, Tijani Tajudeen as well as a board member of Lagos State Universal Education Board, Hon, Babatunde Adewale Jimoh in their separate remarks described the championship as a good initiative capable of helping in the development of athletics at the grassroots level , noting that they will continue to support it
Some of the children commended the organiser for the noble initiative, which they said gave them the opportunity to compete with other students from all parts of the state with an appeal to make it an annual event
At the end of the day, certificates and medals were awarded to the winners
