Fides Media Living the Faith
By Jude Atupulazi
Preparations for the upcoming Anambra School Sports Festival codenamed, “First Solution School Sports Festival”, have hit fever pitch, with about 500 schools registering for the fiesta.
Mr Patrick-Estate Onyedum, Chairman Anambra State Sports Development Commission, who disclosed this in Awka on Tuesday, said the schools included both from primary and secondary.
Onyedum said of them, 200 were privately owned schools in the state.
The First Solution School Sports Festival will hold from May 17 to June 24 from inter-community, through the local government areas up to the state finals.
The chairman described the subscription rate as highly encouraging while expressing the hope that the number may reach the target of 1,000 schools by May 12 when registration would close.
His words, ‘We are impressed with the interest management of schools have shown in the coming school sports festival, it shows they have been yearning for a time like this.
‘As I am talking to you, over five hundred participation forms have been picked, both primary and secondary, but more importantly, about 200 private schools have picked these forms.
‘So, we are also bringing private schools into the Anambra School Sports arena,’ he said.
Onyedum said the competition would feature 10 sporting events, including Athletics, Basketball, Chess, Football, Scrabble, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball and Cricket, with competitions being in U13 and U17 categories.
He thanked Gov. Chukwuma Soludo for his interest in the development of Anambra Youths through sports and for providing the platform for students to blend academic work and sports.
No fewer than 15,000 students are expected to participate at preliminary level of the various games across the 179 communities and 21 local government areas of the state.