Lagos sports arena comes alive again after the last 18th National Sports Festival as all the 36 sports associations begin their Quarterly Inter-Clubs Competitions.
The competitions, which will be organised by the sports associations, would be facilitated by the Ministry of Sports, Youth and Social Development and the Grassroots Sports Development Office.
The multi-sports competitions are designed purposely to keep athletes of the state busy and a veritable platform to discover pool of athletes for future national competitions.
Commissioner for Sports, Youth and Social Development, Barrister Wahid Enitan Oshodi said the sports association will begin the Quarter Inter-Clubs Competition from third week of July. He added that, a full schedule of events will be out anytime from now.
A check across all the sports associations revealed that they have been preparing in earnest for the events, as disbursement of funds for the competitions is currently going.
Some of the chairmen of sports associations who spoke on the readiness of their associations for the competitions commended Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola for the initiative of the Quartely Inter-Clubs Competitions which are aimed at evolving new pool of athletes where individuals, schools (public/private), private clubs (enterprises, small shops owners/offices), corporate organisations (banks, insurance offices) and public corporations can participate as clubs in all the activities.
To the chairperson of handball association, Miss Adeola Opeifa, the Inter-Clubs Competitions have no doubt will enhance value to sports development in Lagos State particularly at the grassroots. “I think this is a laudable initiative to keep our athletes busy throughout the year. It will also help hold our athletes from being poached by other states. The handball association is ready as soon as we receive the funds. I’m looking at the last week of this month for our own competition. Apart from the Inter-Clubs Competitions, we been have running the state league tagged Eko Handball League every Saturday at Rowe Park in Yaba and three days a week training for our junior athletes.” Miss Opeifa said. This is very encouraging.
Mr. Babs Ogunade, who heads basketball association, said the Quarterly Inter-Clubs Competitions will be a veritable platform for the state to prepare for the National Youth Games, especially as the zonal qualifying championships are around the corner.
“The sports associations will use the Inter-Clubs Competitions to prepare for the National Youth Games and I want to believe that this will help most of the associations. We hope to organize our own competition in the next one and half week as we are waiting for the schools to finish their examinations. We are expecting between 12 to 14 clubs in the male and female categories,” Ogunade said.
Mr. Femi Sokoya of table tennis association said his ping pongers are ready for the competition. “The venues (Rowe Park and Teslim Balogun Stadium) are ready and we are expecting between 10 to 15 clubs from both male and female categories. Apart from the funds from the government, we had also sent request for assistance to private organizations so that we will have enough to organize the competition and other programmes will line up for the year,” Sokoya said.
Lagos State sports associations have been enjoined to use this medium and other at their disposal to increase the number of clubs participating in their activities for wider network of athletes such as Armed Forces Clubs, Para Military and individuals who have standing teams to participate in these activities.
