The Director General, Lagos State Sports Commission Lekan Fatodu, has urged the athletes to give their best as Team Lagos compete at the Southwest Zonal Eliminations for the 22nd National Sports Festival – ‘Gateway Games 2024’ billed for May in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Team Lagos athletes will compete against their counterparts from Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti in the team sports when hostilities resume on Tuesday as the states contingents arrived Ibadan, Oyo State for the four day event holding at Ilaji Sports & Resort, Akanran and Adamasigba Stadium.
Addressing the athletes before the team departed Lagos, Fatodu admonished the athletes to make the state proud and reflect excellence on and off the pitch.
The Director General described Lagos as a shining example of sporting excellence in the country due to the commitment, dedication, forthrightness in athletes management, and providing an enabling environment for talents identification and development.
He added that dedication, commitment, trust, optimism and discipline are what stand the athletes out as a professional across different sports, adding that Lagos is a special state among many states in Nigeria and as disciplined sportsmen and women, they need to imbibe the culture of sportsmanship in order to reach high pedestal of their career.
He further highlighted that the issue of athletes poaching has become a thing of the past as the state will not rest on its oars in ensuring that athletes get the necessary support, facilities and equipment to continuously improve and achieve success in their chosen careers.
No fewer than 208 athletes and 15 accompanying technical officials are representing Lagos at the South West Zonal qualifiers for ball games. Football, Basketball, Handball, Volleyball, Cricket, Hockey, Beach Volleyball and Abula are sports Team Lagos will participating in to get qualifying slots in both male and female categories.