Dolphins Swimming League gets support from NOC

• As championship commences January 20
The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has given its backing to the maiden Dolphin Swimming League as the inter-school tournament officially kicks off on January 20 at the Lagos Preparatory School in Ikoyi.

According to the Secretary General of NOC, Tunde Popoola, the staging of the league would surely help to grow swimming in the country. He however, said that this would help to unearth talents.

“Let me congratulate you for this laudable project to develop swimming in Nigeria and the search for talents to represent this great country of ours in nearest future. The NOC is usually in support of projects like this and will continue to support such. We hereby endorse the Dolphin Swimming League and will continue to give support to its development,” the NOC scribe said.

Also, the Chairman of the Lagos State Sports Commission (LSSC), Kweku Tandoh, also lauded the organisers for the initiative while pledging the government support for the tournament.

Tandoh believes such programme would help to groom world-beaters for Lagos and Nigeria as a nation.

For the initiator and CEO of Dynaspro, Oluseyi Oyebode, the ideal behind the tournament is to discover and develop young, talented swimmers to compete on the international stage for Nigeria while also developing youth swimming coaches across the country.

Among the objectives of the tournament is to grow the sport as well as unearth talents and improve the technical know-how of the coaches.

President of the Nigeria Aquatics Federation, Babatunde Fatayi-Williams, has commended the organisers for initiating the tournament while assuring of the federation support.

“We are so excited that the organisers of this tournament muted this kind of idea to take the sport to grassroots level. All over the world, sport is a private public partnership and that is why we have not been able to utilise the potential of sports in this country.

“We are going to assure the organizers that we will keep tab of the talents that will emerge from this tournament. We are going to support them technically through the Lagos State Swimming Association and we are assuring them we will keep record of the talents so that we can consider them for major competitions,” Fatayi-Williams said.

According to marketing firm of the tournament, Advanta Interactive Global Limited Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Efe Ojigbede, more sponsors are expected to come on board to spice up the championship.