Determined to discover budding talents for National and International Sports festival through grassroots sports development,the Abia State Government has officially flagged off the Abia State School Sports Festival 2020 and 1st Edition of the Okezie Ikpeazu Table Tennis School Championship Cup.
800 Schools from different Secondary Schools in the state and pupils of Primary School in both the state government owned and private schools are expected to participate in at least one of the 18 sporting events in the male and female categories of the three weeks sports festival.
Speaking at the event organised by the State Ministry of Youth and Sports in collaboration with Ministry of Education tagged “Catching Them Young” at Osusu Amaukwa Primary School, Obingwa LGA, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu
congratulated the Abia State ministry of Sports for keying into his administration’s dream of reviving schools sports.
According to him,the only way to identify and promote sports in the society is to begin from grassroots development hence the essence of the festival which he said was aimed at re-writing the narrative and ensuring that pulpils and students begin to learn different sporting activities from the cradle.
He noted that Abia was known in the recent past for various sporting activities including handball, football,sprints, wrestling, weightlifting among others in both the male and female categories, but gradually recceded itself to soccer.
He added that the School sports festival will among others revitalize grassroot sports development, discover budding talents among the youths,create wealth and restore the lost glory of the state in the area of sports.
The Minister of Sports, Mr Sunday Dare represented by Dr. Ademola Aare, while noting that the ministry attaches great importance to grassroots sports development,said it is the only way to enhance sports awareness among students as it will expose them to different sporting activities and address the dwindling sports performance.
He described the event by the Abia State government as laudable and stressed the need for more awareness in the area of sports development.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Youth & Sports Development, Chief Emeka Ikwuagwu said that the festival was instituted in line with the Governor’s mandate of reviving sporting activities adding that it will serve as a grassroot talent pool from where mega sports stars will be harnessed.
The Commissioner who noted that the event which he said is the biggest sporting activity ever done in the state,will be held annually adding that talents of various sporting fields would be fished out from the event.
The event which saw the Governor playing table tennis also featured
match past from pupils and students from various schools as well as unveiling of the competition logo and lighting of the unity cup by the Governor.
