214 Athletes, 23 Coaches To Represent Lagos At 7th National School Sports Festival

A contingent of 214 athletes, 23 coaches will represent Team Lagos at the 2014 National Schools Sports Festival which takes place in Oturkpo and Makurdi, Benue State from 6th-16th November.

 

Team Lagos, according to the Director of Sports (DOS), Lagos State Sports Council, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, will participate in 16 sports; Athletics, Chess, Gymnastics, Scrabble, Golf, Badminton, Fives, Table Tennis, Tennis, Judo, Karate, Teakwondo , Wrestling, Handball, Volleyball and Cricket.

 

The DOS revealed that Team Lagos features mostly athletes that participated at this year's Lagos State Sports Festival tagged IBILE Games and the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Secondary Schools Games (DAWN Games) hosted by Lagos State in May 2014.

 

In a statement made available to newmen at the weekend by Bashir Agunloye, Head, Press/Public Relations, Lagos State Sports Council, Dr. Tandoh expressed his appreciation to Governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and the Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Wahid Enitan Oshodi for facilitating the preparation and participation of the State at this years NSSF Games.

 

"Our athletes are in good shape for the 7th National Schools Sports Festival as they have been training and participating in various competitions since the beginning of the year. So we are expecting a good outing from them in Benue State and I believe we will surpass the second position recorded at the last School Sports Festival in 2013" said Tandoh, who was the Secretary- General, Local Organizing Committee (LOC) of the Eko 2012 National Sports Festival.

 

It would be recalled that Team Lagos won a total of 49 gold, 43 silver and 54 bronze medals to claim the second position at the 2013 edition held in Ilorin, Kwara State. The team departs for Oturkpo on Thursday 6th November.

Lagos Strategies Ahead School Sports Festival, National Sports Festival, NSF.

As part of the efforts to ensure that Team Lagos excel in the two major national sports competitions remaining for this year, the management of the state’s Sports Council has begun strategic planning with stakeholders within its fold.

Team Lagos is scheduled to take part in the National School Sports Festival in Makurdi, Benue and the 19th National Sports Festival coming up this year, in Calabar, Cross River States in September and November 2014.
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In the last few days, the Director of Sports, Lagos State Sports Council,  Dr. Kweku Tandoh, has been holding series of meetings with the stakeholders all in a bid to ensure that Lagos excels in those tournaments.

The meetings were held with Lagos State Technical Committee members headed by Babatunde Fatayi-Williams, who is also the Chairman of Aquatic Federation of Nigeria, Chairmen and Technical Directors of Sports approved for the School Sports tourney and the National Sports Festival, as well as sports association’s secretaries and sports officers in the local government and Local Council Development Areas.

Tandoh, mandated the secretaries and coaches of  the sports associations to build their teams for the NSSF Games around the athletes that represented the state at the recently concluded DAWN Games, South West States Secondary School Games.

He assured that selection of athletes to represent the state will be based on comparative strengths, performance and transparent evaluation of the athletes.

“We will continue to support sports development in the state and see to the welfare of our athletes. The result of the government’s grassroots sports development programmes have manifested in our achievements at the last school sports festival in Ilorin 2013 where we came second, the Eko 2012 National Sports Festival where we came third and also at the DAWN Games 2014 where Team Lagos came first,” said Tandoh, who was the Secretary of the Local Organising Committee, LOC, for Eko 2012 Games.

Sports associations are currently embarking on weekly training programmes to get the athletes ready for the two national tournaments where Lagos is hoping to put up an excellent performance.

Lagos State Sports Council Will Invest In School Sports, Tandoh

The Lagos State Sports Council, LSSC, has reiterated its commitment to improve school sports activities through a grassroot developmental programme geared at discovering and nurturing athletes to stardom.

Its Director of Sports, Kwesi Tandoh who was the Chief Executive of the Eko 2012 Games said the state's sports council had resolved to begin programme tagged train the touners workshop where the council;s coaches would be deployed to both public and private secondary school to train their gamesmasters.

While noting that the athletes who represented Lagos State at the last National School Sports Festival, in Ilorin, Kwara State were not the best to have been paraded at Games, Tandoh, said the sports council would use the forthcoming IBILE Games to which is school sports based to select athletes for future competition.

He said the last National Sports Festival hosted by Lagos State Government had placed the state in a vantage position to train its wards with modern sports facilities which have been maintained to international standard following regular sporting activities being organised at the various sports centres.

According to Tandoh, the state will not have to focus on development sports programme as the sports council through the Ministry of Youth Sports and Social Development had concluded plans to feature athletes who recorded excellent performance at the South West Games in May, 2014, would represent the state at the National Sports Festival in Calabar, Cross-River State.

He said Lagos State would into be forced to search for wlite atheletes to represent the state at the National Sports fFestival in Calabar, Cross-River but would rely solely on its athletes than established and already discovered athletes.

Age Grade Ttournaments Should Not Be Staged Outside Schools, NASCOM Insists

To check age cheat in sports, National Academicals Sports Committee, NASCOM, has said that age grade competitions should not be organized outside the school system.

Its Chairman, Yemi Idowu, while unveiling NASCOM calendar for 2013/2014, says age grade competitions are not supposed to be staged outside schools, stressing that the body need to send a clear message to all stakeholders that age grade competition should be undertaken by school children and it should be domiciled in schools.

Also in its efforts to bring vibrancy to school sports across the country, NASCOM has once again reaffirmed its support for Nigeria School Sports Federation NSSF and Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria, YSFON.

According to him, the body was set up to compliment the efforts of NSSF and YSFON, saying the committee has agreed not to organise any new competition which would be in conflict with the work already being done by NSSF and YSFON rather the body will raise awareness and funds for the promotions of schools sports and improvement of age grade competitions at the school level.

Idowu says the calendar encompasses the timetable of activities of bodies like, would be made public across the country by NASCOM.

 He says they need to create bigger talent pool for sports, which can only be achieved by increasing the percentage of school age kids participating in competitive sports, hence the reason why the committee introduced Rythmn N Play as brand to attract more children to participate in sports.