Experts Unveil New Sports Talents Hunt, Kiddies Olympic In Lagos

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, Sports News Wednesday, July 1st, 2015

By Adebiyi Adeseye – Apart from the popular Sports and Movie academies which are meant to discover and train the young and upcoming stars, another “catch them young” sports concept has been conceived and unveiled in Lagos.

Referred to as Kiddies Olympic, the sport initiative was hatched by some Lagos based Creative arts experts with the support of Universal Basic Education Board (UBEB) and the Association Of Lagos SUBEB Sport officers (ALSSO), Kiddies Olympic is an avenue for young minds in particular the (primary school pupils) to participate in sports related activities such as Football, Handball, Athletics Table Tennis, Scrabble and Chess to start with, for its maiden edition, before introducing additional games.

Addressing a pre-event press Conference Tuesday, one of the organizers and ALSSO Sports Officer, Prince Olu Akapo pointed out that the platform was meant to catch the potential stars young, so as to shape their minds about how productive and lucrative sporting activities could be.

He explained that the participation process for the maiden edition would be launched within the confine of Lagos state, before spreading its wings to other primary schools across the Federation.

Prince Akapo elaborated that the initiative was not just for the participants to win at all cost, rather the paramount reason was just to let them discover their talents, identify their prospects, full potentials as well as to exhibit the latent skills in them.

Akapo who was corroborated by the Executive Producer of Klozit Limited, the initiator of the concept, Mr. Nurudeen Aluko, an inter school preliminaries in all the schools in the 20 local government areas of Lagos have already commenced and would be rounded off on July 18, for the ongoing academic session break.

The duo informed that the game would resume immediately after schools resume for the 2015/2016 academic session in September this year.

Already, about 1010 public schools and 990 private schools making it 2000 schools all together in the 20 Local Council areas in the state, Akapo and Aluko announced would participate in this maiden event and approximately 120 pupils, male and female would make it to the grand finale, which holds in October 2015, inside the main-bowl of Teslim Balogun stadium, Surulere.

The organizers urged the public to note that the use of machineries in the prestigious tournament should be discouraged and would not be condoned. They added that the participating students would be rigorously monitored and investigated, which was the reason primary six pupils were exempted from the exercise.

The organizers however cautioned that the idea of scholarship in the event was not guaranteed for now, as the incoming is the first edition, still, Akapo noted that the outcome of the maiden version ‘might give birth’ to scholarship rewards for winners.