Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola Approves 20 Million For Tertiary Games

Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has approved a sum of twenty million naira for the successful hosting of the second edition of the Bi - Annual Tertiary Institution Games billed to begin next month.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Grassroot Sports, Prince Wale Oladunjoye, who made this know while speaking with Sports weight.blogspot.com, explained that Nineteen institutions would take part in the event as the tournament's total package of nineteen million naira was a review of money earmarked for last year's edition.

Oladunjoye, said the Governor has also approved three million Naira to support all the participating insttitutions to prepare better for the tournament while ten million Naira has been set aside as the prize money for the winning teams.

According to him, the institutions would feature in seven sports which includes Basketball, Table tennis, Athletics, Volleyball, Beachvolleyball, Soccer among others as the final would come up on the third of June, 2010 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

He said the Local Organising Committee would visit some of the institutions that had delared their interest to host some sporting activities in a bid to confirm their readiness for the games, adding that the committee would support the institutions with sports equipment to stage a befitting event.

He said the tournament which usually comes once a year would now be staged twice in a year to further widen the horizon of the athletes.

He explained that the competition would enable the state to discover hidden talents at the tertiary institutions which includes the Colleges of Education, Federal, State and Private Uniiversities, Private and Federal Polytechnics, College of Fisheries and Marine.

The University of Lagos Director of Sports, Cecilia Aruye, said the varsity is ready to host Basketball, Table Tennis, Volleyball and Soccer.

While the sports coordinator, Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education,Ranti Olajide said the college stand a better chance to win the tournament follwing its performance in the last concluded Nigeria Colleges of Education Games Association as they intend to use the Inter Tertiary Institutions Games to prepare for the forthcoming zonal preliminary Games ahead of the Nigeria Colleges of Education Games Association