Tonye Orabere, PH Bureau Chief
The Life Youth Sports Development Initiative (LYSDI) in Nigeria says it has concluded arrangements for its inaugural inter-school track and field competition for selected secondary schools in Rivers State.
The event is scheduled to be held on Tuesday at Enitonia High School, Borikiri, in Port Harcourt, at 8:00 am.
This was made known by the president of the organization, Odikibo Solomon Odikibo, in an exclusive interview with Newsafricng.com over the weekend in Port Harcourt, saying that the event is aimed at discovering hidden talents from the secondary schools and grooming them for stardom. This can be described as catching them young.
According to him, he is worried as track and field events are gradually dying in the state, adding that as a retired athlete who has represented the state in various sports events, he knows how Rivers State was in terms of performance in sports festivals.
“This organization was established out of passion to discover hidden talents from secondary schools. It is self-sponsored. I intended to catch them young.
“In my days of active sports, there were a lot of secondary school sports competitions and tournaments; it was there that they used to discover athletes. It was from school sports that I was discovered. I did high jump, long jump, and hurdles.
“Now my worry is that old athletes are retiring gradually, so we need to train young ones who will take over from them. Imagine Rivers State, which was once known as a hub of sports following its sporting activities, but is now nowhere,” Odikibo said.
The president appealed to the state ministry of sports to renovate and return the Alfred Diete-Spiff sports complex so that youths can have access to training.
He equally appeals to corporate organizations and the state government through the Ministry of Sports for support.
