11th February, 2011
Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashola, will formally launch the Adop-A-Talent Sports Programme in March this year.
A letter from the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Grassroots Sports Development, Prince Wale Oladunjoye (Snr.), requesting the state governor to formally declare open the programme has been sent to Alausa Secretariat.
Adopt-A-Talent Sports Programme, a sports vision conceptualised by the governor in late 2009, kicked off in the first quarter of 2010 and has since grown to an enviable height, as a horde of budding stars have been discovered and being harnessed.
Notable among the hidden talents discovered by the coaches and technical officials handling the programme are Petit Summer Quadri, a Table Tennis prodigy and Christian Abua, who made impressive showings during the Asoju Oba of Lagos Table Tennis Championship and Governor’s Boxing Belt Hall Of Fame.
The six games approved by the Governor for the programmes are athletics, boxing, basketball, football, table tennis and volleyball.
Prince Oladunjoye (Snr.) told P.M.Sports that a tentative date has been suggested, pending an approval from the Governor’s Office for the formal launching of the programme.
Earlier, 109 athletes were picked from the list of 287 invited for screening early last year and another set of athletes were picked during the fresh interview conducted from 17 – 22 December, 2010. At the end of that exercise, 43 athletes drawn from six sports were picked to make up a final list of 88 athletes to be unveiled.
A breakdown of the athletes under the programme shows that athletics has 16, boxing has 10, basketball has 15, football has 15, table tennis has 18 and volleyball has 14.