By Ifeanyi Eduzor
It was fun gallore, skillful display and unlimited entertainment last Sunday during the 4th edition of the annual BMX extreme sports show held at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
The event which attracted more than a hundred Skaters, bikers and skate board athletes saw the participants displaying different skills in freestyle and aggressive skating to the admiration of fans which included the Lagos Laision Officer of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Mrs. Nkana Mbora.
Organizer of the event / initiator of BMX sports in Lagos, Mathew Temitope Solomon A.K.A Star Boy said he was inspired to introduce the event after watching video clips of it in other countries noting that the successes recorded in previous editions spured him to make the 4th edition bigger noting that his vision is for the event to grow to a stage where the country can have, professional competitions in BMX.
“The international community has set aside July, 20 every year as BMX day and as part of the global community we decided to organize this event as part of that celebration.
“You know that skating is an Olympics sports and what we’re doing is to prepare the amateur and BMX riders and build their confidence ahead of 2024 Olympics as well as provide them with the platform where they can express themselves and be what they want to be”, he explained.
He was particularly grateful to Power Horse for being a worthy partner with an appeal to other corporate Organizations to partner with the organizers to make subsequent editions bigger and more glamorous.
” I’m particularly grateful to Power Horse for being with us since the first edition and I want corporate Nigeria to partner with us because we need modern and adequate facilities to train the athletes and I can assure them that the future of the game is bright with adequate support.
Technical Director of Roller Sports Federation of Nigeria/ Coordinator of the event, Kendron Nkisa while expressing happiness at the successful completion of the event expressed optimism that BMX has come to stay in the country even as he assured that the country boosts of quality skaters and bikers who with adequate funding and encouragement will do the country proud at international competitions.
” I’m very excited that we witnessed a successful event and this will propel us to do more next year. I also want to assure Nigerians that we have good athletes who can do the country proud at the international level but they need adequate support both financially and otherwise to excel”, he concluded.
At the end of the day, international skater, Samuel Eganga won the aggressive skating style while freestyle was won by Kareem Abdulahi.
