By PAMELA EBOH, Awka

No fewer than 500 schools have so far registered for the upcoming Anambra School Sports Festival slated to run from May 17 to June 24, 2023, from inter-community, through the local government areas and wind up at the state finals.

The sports fiesta codenamed, “First Solution School Sports Festival”, the first in over a decade, has a record over 200 enrollees from privately-owned schools in the state.

Disclosing this in Awka, the Chairman of Anambra State Sports Development Commission, Mr. Patrick-Estate Onyedum, said the enrollees were both from primary and secondary schools.

Onyedum described the subscription rate as highly encouraging, while expressing hope that the number may reach the target of 1,000 schools by Friday, May 12, when registration will close.

He said: “We are impressed with the interest management of schools have shown in the coming school sports festival, it shows they have been yearning for a time like this.

“As I am talking to you, over 500 participation forms have been picked by both primary and secondary schools, but more importantly about 200 private schools have picked these forms.

“So we are also bringing private schools into the Anambra school sports arena.”

Onyedum said the competition would feature 10 sporting events, namely, Athletics, Basketball, Chess, Football, Scrabble, Swimming, Table Tennis, Tennis, Taekwondo, Volleyball and Cricket would be categorized in U-13 and U-17.

He thanked Governor Chukwuma Soludo for his interest in the development of Anambra youths through sports and providing the platform for the students to blend academics and sports.

About 15,000 students are expected to participate at preliminary level of the various games across the 179 communities and 21 local government areas of the state.