Lagos Shines At 3rd Under-18 Fives Championship

TAIWO ADELU

Lagos State has won the 3rd Lagos Under 18 Fives Championship which was held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere.
The tournament is sponsored by the Lagos State Sports Commission and organised by the Lagos State Fives Association.

Participating in the event included the host, Lagos and States such as Kebbi, Sokoto, Kaduna, Kwara, Ogun, Jigawa and Osun.
Lagos State athletes won 4 gold and 1 silver medals, while Kebbi won 2 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze medals and Osun States clinched 1 silver and 3 bronze medals to place second and third respectively.
Other states on the medal table are Osun with 1 silver and 2 bronze.

Sokoto State won 2 medals, 1 silver and 1 bronze. Kwara and Kaduna won 1 silver medal each.
In the singles final decided during the closing ceremony, : Lagos defeated Oyo 2-0 (7-3, 7-1), Sokoto beat Kebbi State 2-0 (12-5 , 12-5) in the Doubles final.
The competition also produced some outstanding athletes among whom are Abubakar Suleideen in the Boys’singles, Sheffideen Muhammed in the Action Boys. Muhammed, who won 2 gold medals for Lagos was the youngest athlete in the competition.
Others are John Emeka and Ajadi Mudashiru of Lagos in the Doubles Wall Boys. Sheffideen Muhammed and Onyeso Mercy in the Mixed Doubles and Mudashiru Ajadi in the Fixed Action event.
Chairman of Lagos State Fives Association, Alhaji Nasiru Muhammed revealed that the best 12 athletes in the competition will represent Nigeria at the World Fives Championship in the United Kingdom in April next year and he called on government, both in the state and federal, to support Nigeria Fives Federation in its bid to participate in the world tournament.
Muhammed, who is also the Technical Director of Nigeria Fives Federation, thanked Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for the support giving to the association through the Sports Commission to organise the 3rd edition of the U-18 competition. He wanted support giving to the association to overcome the challenges of non availability of courts and funding which the association has been facing over the years.
Speaking on behalf of the Director General of the Sports Commission, Mr Adewunmi Ogunsanya, his representative at the final ceremony, Mr. Nunayo Travih, said the reason the Commission is supporting staging of competition in the lesser sports, is to give all sports in the state equal attention, adding that the authorities plan to ensure that no matter the area of specialisation of the athletes, they must be able to find a sport to exhibit their God-given talents.

He disclosed that in the process of organising these series of competitions, all budding athletes discovered will be compiled in a data base at at the end of which they will be called to camp during the schools long vacation next year for them to be further groomed in the respective sports.