26th August, 2010
Defending champions of the Lagos NUJ Media Games in the Ladi Lawal 5-A-Side football event, Lagos Information and seven others have qualified for the quarter finals of this year’s edition.
At the end of the preliminary rounds of matches played at the Handball Courts of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos last weekend, Lagos Information and Rhythm/STV teams qualified from Group A with 15 and 11 points respectively, while Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and New Nigerian newspaper picked their tickets in Group B with 15 and 12 points respectively.
ThisDay and SportsDay came first and second in Group C with 15 and 12 points to qualify for the quarter-finals billed for next month at the same venue. The Sun newspapers and Daar Communications also qualified leading the pack in Group D with 15 and 12 points respectively.
Vice Chairman of the Main Organising Committee (MOC) of the Games, Isaac Isaac, praised the standard of the event and commended the players for displaying spirit of sportsmanship. Isaac, who is also the Managing Director of O & I Contact, marketers of the Games, urged the players to keep up the tempo during the remaining stages of the competition.
In his remark, chairman of the MOC, Wahab Alabi Oba, who is also the chairman of the Lagos Council of the NUJ, said the event is in honour of former chairman of the council, who was also the former National President of the NUJ,the late Ladi Lawal. Oba thanked all the teams for honouring the late Lawal. Meanwhile, the quarter-finals fixtures have been released by the Technical Committee of the Games. According to the spokesman of the committee, Ayo Bada, Lagos Information will take on New Nigerian in the first match, while Rhythm/STV will trade tackles with FRCN in the second match. ThisDay newspapers will play Daar Communications in the third match, while the last quarter final match will see SportsDay confronting The Sun newspapers.
“The quarter final matches would be used as the opening ceremony for this year’s Games scheduled between 17 and 24 September,†Bada said.
He, however, called on all chapels in the council to meet up with the 27 August deadline date for the registration of their athletes for the remaining events of the Games, which include Swimming, Chess, Scrabble, Ayo, Draught, Table-Tennis, Tennis, Football (11-A-side), Marathon, Tug-of-War and Athletics.