The President of the Life Youth Sports Development Initiative (LYSDI), Odikibo Solomon Odikibo, has appealed to Rivers State Governor, Sir Siminalayi Fubara, to reconstruct the Alfred Diete-Spiff Sports Complex (Civic Centre) to provide standard track and field facilities.
Odikibo, a former multiple medalist in long jump and high jump for Rivers State, said the state is blessed with abundant athletic talents but lacks facilities for them to train and improve.
He made the appeal in an exclusive interview with sports journalists shortly after a training session with young athletes under his tutelage at the weekend in Port Harcourt.
According to him, track and field in the state risks going extinct as current athletes are ageing without adequate replacements, while relevant authorities appear unconcerned about discovering and grooming new talents.
“I am passionately appealing to the state government, through the Ministry of Sports, to reconstruct the Civic Centre to accommodate track and field facilities as it was before,” he said.
“Young athletes are eager to do sports but have no facilities to train with. We all know that without training facilities, no athlete will improve, so there is a need to bring the Civic Centre back to its original state.”
Odikibo explained that LYSDI is a self-sponsored grassroots initiative established out of passion to discover hidden talents from secondary schools.
“In my days of active sports, there were lots of secondary school sports competitions and tournaments; it was there they used to discover athletes. It was from school sports that I was also discovered. I did high jump, long jump, and hurdles,” he added.
