National Youth Games: Athletes Welfare Top Priority For Lagos State.

The atmosphere at Team Lagos camp on Thursday evening was electrifying even as some of the athletes are poise to win more medals in the remaining days of competition at the ongoing National Youth Games in Ilorin, Kwara State.

The ambience radiating through the hostels was pleasing with the visit of the management of the Lagos state sports commission led by the executive chairman, Dr Kweku Tandoh who enthused that the quality of accommodation contributed to the team’s successful outing at the games.

During the visit to the team hostels, Tandoh emphasised that athletes welfare is a huge concern for Lagos State Government and the Lagos state sports commission will ensure that athletes, who are privilege to represent the state get the best treatment.

Unlike athletes from some of the participating states that protested poor accommodation arrangements, Team Lagos athletes are camped at the best facility available since arriving for the games following the intervention of the Lagos state sports commission. The comfort of the team ensured that the athletes are in perfect frame of mind.

“You want to get the best out of anybody especially children, then you need to ensure that they are comfortable and be in the right mood to put in their best. I’m quite happy and satisfied with the state of the accomodation that we have been able to provide for the athletes and I’m sure this has motivated many of them to put in the performances that they have been doing for the past four, five days or so. Athletes welfare and athletes motivation is very important to us in Lagos and that is why immediately we came in we had to ensure that we put our athletes in a place that will be conducive for them to put in their best” He said.

The 4th edition of National Youth Games which started last week will end in a couple of days, Tandoh enjoined Team Lagos athletes to maintained discpline in camp and remain good ambassadors of the state.

Apart from providing opportunity for potential talents to be identified, discovered and nurtured in various sports, the National Youth Games is a veritable platform for promoting of cultural exchanges and national integration. Tandoh stated that the experience of participating at the games will be life changing for some athletes while thanking Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for ensuring that the athletes compete against their contemporaries from other states at the under 15 championship.

“This is a national competition and we have children from different states. I think about 32 states have athletes participating at the youth games, so its an opportunity for children to bound, for them to begin to make friends across their natural habitat. One of the things I said to our athletes today, especially those who have completed their events, is that this is the time for them to mix , to socialise, to make friends because you never know friends that you make at this level where you will meet them or need them in the future. One of the objectives of the National Youth Games is to engender unity, foster friendship and ensure that people get to know more about each other. The habit and attitude of people that are different from you and these are experiences that are life changing, these are experiences that will always come to play in future” Tandoh added.

Athletics, Badminton, Para Powerlifting and Wushu Kung-Fu events of the National Youth Games start on Friday while Boxing, Chess, Karate, Handball, Scrabble and Squash continue today at different venues.