Sam-Philip Ebosie memorial swimming championship ends in Lagos
By Ifeanyi Eduzor
The maiden edition of Captain Sam-Philip Ebosie memorial swimming championship has ended in Lagos.
Organized at the Olympic size swimming pool of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, the two day tournament attracted students from about 20 schools within Lagos ant its environs who showed their skills in such events as back stroke, butterfly, breaststroke and freestyle to the admiration of the fans.
Chairman Technical Committee of the tournament, Patrick Egbele while expressing happiness at the level of competitiveness among the athletes explained that the competition was put together in recognition of the numerous contributions of late Captain Ebosie towards the development of swimming during his life time.
” This championship was put together in memory of a man who did a lot towards the development of swimming during his life time. It’s also part of the efforts at developing the game at the grassroots and am happy that many records were broken and new ones set during the two day event and we hope to make it an annual event.
“It’s equally important to state that we saw some young talents that have not been able to express themselves because of lack of competitions and I’ m happy there is a new committee on ground and hopefully, we shall be organising the tournament quarterly or every three months.
On how to make Nigeria a dominant force in swimming in the continent, he advocated for the construction of standard pools in every Local Government Area of the country which will help develop the sports.
” We have good swimmers who can do the country proud at international championships but we need regular grassroots competitions like this every three or four months to keep them fit and get adequate exposure.
” There is also need to build at least one standard swimming pool in all the Local Government Areas of the country to help in nurturing athletes because part of the problem we’re having is that most of our swimmers don’t have a place to practise and I can assure you that if this is done in the next four years , Nigeria will produce champions at both the All Africa, Commonwealth and Olympic Games.
Egbele who was the former Chairman of Lagos State Swimming Association while apreaciating the sponsor of the tournament, charged Nigeria Aquatic Federation to imbibe the Lagos Country Club model which offers scholarship abroad to swimmers which has gone a long way on improving their skills.
” One thing I would like the Federation to do is to emulate Lagos Country Club which offers scholarship to swimmers and these athletes always come around during Summer holidays to participate in one tournament or the other organised by the club and this has helped a lot in talent development”, he concluded.
At the end of the competition, trophies where given out to winners in different categories while there was also coaches competition which kept the fans off their seats as the event lasted.
