Oshodi Rates Ibile Games 2015 High

As the Lagos State Secondary Schools Sports Festival tagged Ibile Games 2015 enters Day Five on Friday, Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Enitan Oshodi has rated the tournament high, commending the school athletes and officials for exhibiting spirit of sportsmanship.

Oshodi, who is the Chairman of the Main Organising Committee, MOC, of the competition, particularly praised the athletes who are about 5,950 from 418 secondary schools in the state for conducting themselves very well. He said: “I wish to commend the athletes for their well behaved attitude and for showing good sportsmanship.

 I want to assured that Lagos will continue to invest in the development of sports at the grassroots, to develop talents and nurtured them to become champions not only for the state but for the country in general.”

The athletes themselves have been commending the state government for organising the games and for making available enough food and water for them. A taekwondo athlete from Oloruntele Integrity School, Meiran, Ojokoro, Lagos, Abdulsalam Ismaeel said:

 “ We are being fed two times in a day since the commencement of the games, this is good.” Meanwhile, the ongoing games has been yielding positive result as a gold medalist in the taekwondo event, Lawal Assisat of Great Everly College, Ikorodu, said that the laurel she won would propel her to do well at the 2016 National School Sports Festival. Assisat, who defeated Salau Maria, of Ifako Comprehensive College, in the final of 67kg, has never won a gold medal in all events she had featured in the past.

She said this laurel she won this year would motivate her to work harder She appealed to the Lagos State Taekwondo Association, LSTA, to organise regular competitions and workshops to enable the athletes keep abreast of latest trends in the sport, even as she wants provision of taekwondo kits to further motivate the athletes to excel.

Another gold medal winner, Zainab Ayoola Precious from Abesan Senior High School, who won a bronze medal at last year’s Ibile Games, said she worked hard to achieve the result. She thanked her coaches for keeping her in good shape.

Chairman, Lagos State Taekwondo Association (LSTA) Jimmy Ogunnowo, said the best athletes discovered at the games would be invited to camp where they would be training with the National Sports Festival bound athletes in order to further expose them.

 Ogunnowo, said the decision of Lagos State Government to make this year’s edition a secondary school based, fell in line with LSTA's agenda of developmental programmes where series of events have been designed for all categories of athletes, stressing that the 2015 Ibile Games is laudable tourney which helps various sports associations to discover school based talents.