Teslim Stadium Agog, As Lagos Students Take Part In ‘School Sports Is Back’ Competition And Mentorship Event

At a period when novel Coronavirus has impeded and restricted the normal ways of life of mankind, there is need for people to face the new reality and begin to live with the new normal the pandemic has brought to people across the world.

It is not surprised however that organisations have been finding ways to ensure that they are not left behind, a reason the Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC) has to roll out its programmes for the Year 2021 to ensure that there is no stagnancy in Lagos sports environment unlike 2020 when every activity was put on hold.

With strict adherence to all COVID-19 protocols, the management of the Commission headed by the Executive Chairman,  Mr. Sola Aiyepeku and the indefatigable Director General, Mr. Oluwatoyin Gafaar, decided to take school sports to the next level in Lagos State. This did not surprise many as indeed, Lagos is known as the pacesetter in Nigerian sports.

The Commission started the new year with “School Sports is Back” programme with the determination to leave nothing to chance in order to ensure that it consolidates the integration of Sports and Education so that academic development goes hand -in-hand with physical development for balanced and all-round development of the state’s secondary school students. 

A three- day competition and mentorship event is currently ongoing at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere where participants  were drawn from selected student athletes from both public and private schools across the six Education Districts of Lagos State in order to drive an inclusive initiative  and also to promote sports culture.

The objective of this event is to use sports as “a vehicle to eliminate juvenile delinquency and expose prospective athletes to the limelight.”

P.M. EXPRESS reports that the event is segmented into  Mentorship, Swimming and Taekwondo Poomsae. The event started with the mentorship of participants on Monday, at the Indoor Sports Hall,  Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere. 

In the Taekwondo Poomsae, the atudents were taken on the rudiments of Taekwondo and what it takes to become professionals.  

A SSS 3 student, Ayoola Moshoodat from Abesan Senior High School, who participated in the Taekwondo Poomsae exercise gave kudos to the Lagos State Sports Commission for using its platform to promote sporting activities in the state. 

“Some of us don’t know much about Taekwondo sport, but for the Sports Commission coming up with this kind of programme, it will go long way in exposing us to realities,” said Moshoodat.

The swimming exercise featured different styles such as 100m girls,100m freestyle, 50m butterfly,100m butterfly,100m breaststroke,100m backstroke, mixed meddling relay and junior freestyle relay.

The event ends on Wednesday.