St Saviours and Lekki British School (LBS) showed their stuff after topping the table at the maiden Dolphin Swimming League which kicked off at the weekend in Lagos.
Carting home the largest number of medals in the elementary category, St Saviours is leading other teams on the league table while LBS dominated the secondary school category ahead of others to be in charge of the table.
The opening ceremony of the championship witnessed a large turnout of participants supported by their parents and guardians as the 50metre swimming pool of the Lagos preparatory School (LPS) was filled with exceptional displays by the swimmers.
Also, the Chairman, Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC), Kweku Tandoh and Chairman, Nath Boys, Yemi Idowu have commended the organizers of the tournament particularly with the turnout of schools.
The LSSC boss who described the tournament as an example of private and public sector partnership for grassroots sports development.
“This initiative is one of those that we have been looking forward to in Lagos, a partnership between the private sector and the Lagos State Sports Commission. Also, the initiative keys into our vision for school sports. Look at the turn-out we have here today, look at the exceptional talents that we are watching and developing. Some of these athletes have gone out of the country to win laurels for their schools and yet we are not even aware of them and that is why going forward, LSSC will be working very closely with the private schools system. A situation where we only deal with public schools will not augur well for us in terms of sports development,” Tandoh said.
He added: “There is a lot of talent in Lagos and we really need to discover and expose them. One advantage private schools have is the availability of facilities. If we come in and work with them, we can use their sports facilities as a training hub for public schools that are around the same vicinity when we have a partnership and arrangement with them.”
For Idowu, this kind of tournament would encourage parents and guardians to support their wards.” I am very happy that something like this is starting at the school level for students. Swimming is one of those sports that enhances cardiac and physio development for children. This is a new competition that we are hoping to cover all the schools within Lagos and hopefully go outside the state in the future. Definitely, it is going to be motivated by parents, schools and availability of facilities. Because of the nature of swimming, we will need a lot of facilities not restricted to schools but hotels and youth centres or activities centres as long as we can have a 25 meters pool or 50 meters that the athletes can use,” Idowu said.
For the Headmaster of LPS, Nicholas Barrett, the school is excited hosting the opening ceremony of such a laudable initiative.
“LPS would like to thank all the dignitaries who graced the inaugural Dolphin League Swimming meet with their presence, the technical officers who ensured the competition was carried out to a professional level, the organisers who put it all together and all the athletes, coaches and schools whose hard work and diligence was evident today. Today gave our students yet another chance to expand their experience of swimming and to learn something new from the other competitors. We remain excited about the future of the League and we look forward to providing continued support in the years to come,” Barrett said.