Director of Sports Technical in the Anambra Sports Development Commission, Mr. Emeka Obidimma has described the ongoing school sports festival as impressive and promising.
Angel Network News (ANN) reports that
Obidimma said this on Wednesday in Awka at the conclusion of the intercommunity stage of the festival.
According to Obidimma, the festival had once again brought alive the spirit of grassroots sports as about 756 primary and secondary schools across the 179 communities took part in the first stage of the competition.
“I am glad to inform you that the second edition of the Anambra School Sports Festival which started on May 2 is progressing well, it has been participatory because a good number of schools registered to participate and the young athletes have been showing promise.
“Already, we have started identifying potential champions because the major purpose of school sports under the Anambra State Sports Solution Initiative (ANSSI) is to discover future Olympians.
“We are grateful to Governor Chukwuma Soludo who has shown tremendous interest in sports and empowering youths through it, that is part of the reason why he brought the school sports festival back in 2023 as well as Patrick-Estate Onyedum, Chairman of Anambra State Sports Development Commission for driving the vision,” he said.
Obidimma said the competition was a huge improvement over the 2023 edition while admitting that there were challenges at the initial stage.
He maintained that the real champions woul begin to emerge as the festival progresses and called on sports enthusiasts to visit the venues and cheer the oils and students to victory.
“No doubt, we have challenges at the early stage because we are managing about 756 schools but we were able to sort them out and we are getting better as we go into the Local Government Area stage.
ANN gathered that the festival which will hold between May 2 and June 7 features 12 sporting events. Athletics, Basketball, Chess, Football, Scrabble and Swimming, Table tennis, Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleybal, Cricket and Ncho and would be competed for in U-12, U-14 and U-18 categories.
The Local Government Area stage of the competition would hold between May 15 and May 17.
