By CHIMEZIE ANASO

No fewer than 2,000 students across the 21 Local Governments Areas (LGAs) of Anambra are set to compete in the state finals of the Anambra School Sports Festival, scheduled to hold between June 21 and June 24.

The finalists who emerged after scaling through the community, local government and zonal elimination stages will take part in the finals of the 10 competitive events that would be staged in six venues in Awka, the Anambra capital city.

The festival, tagged First Solution School Sports Festival, started on May 17 with community preliminaries.

Patrick-Estate Onyedum, Chairman of Anambra Sports Development Commission, said this after a meeting of the Main Organising Committee (MOC) and Local Government Sports Officers on Friday.

Onyedum, who commended all the field men for their commitment to excellence, described the level of competition among the students as high and expository.

He said preparations were in top gear for a thrilling finals and closing ceremony and called on the schools, parents and sports lovers to grace the various venues and entertain themselves with the best of grassroots sports.

According to him, “we started out with about 17,000 students from 610 schools about a month ago but I am glad to inform you that after the various levels of elimination, we have about 2,000 state finalists in this festival.

“I want to commend my sports officers at the Local Government Areas, Games Masters and Coordinators who managed the process with diligence and commitment to produce these finalists.

“The students showed raw and rare talents, the festival has been competitive and the spirit is high because they have longed for it, that is why we cannot thank our governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, enough,” he said.

Onyedum said local and foreign scouts were already in the state identifying budding talents while assuring that exceptional talents would be harvested and placed on close mentorship where they would develop their talents and pursue their studies.

According to the schedule, released by the MOC, venues for the various events are, football, Government Technical College and Paul University football pitch; Swimming, Marble Arch Hotel and Tennis, Chess and Scramble, City Sports Club, all in Awka.

Others are Volleyball, Basketball, Taekwondo and Cricket at the Alex Ekwueme Square while the Awka Township Stadium would host Athletics and the final football match.

The grand finale of the festival on June 24 will kick off with the Olympic Day Run celebration at 7 am. (NAN)

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