The National Association of Women in Sports (NAWIS), kick off the maiden edition of its games in Lagos between April 18 to April 22.
Chairperson of NAWIS Lagos Chapter, Tayo Popoola, said that the participants will compete in seven sports. Popoola said that competition will feature seven states chapters from geo-political zones. “Seven states from the country’s geo-political zones are scheduled to take part in the from April 18 to 22 across three different sports centres in the state.
‘’I want to assure you all that Lagos would hold an event that would be worthy of emulation.
“NAWIS came with a program that involves different sports and we felt the need to add value into the society, especially sports involving women. “We have seven sports to start with but as time goes on we will be expanding the number of sports. This is going to be one of the best sporting events that even the Ministry of Sport will be proud of.
‘’Since Lagos is the centre of excellence this is tge reason we are starting games here,” she said.
Popoola added that “One of the people that challenged us was the cricket federation because while we were thinking and planning, we approached the president of the federation and he gave us the go-ahead and we were delighted.
“The handball federation is also committed to the success of the games, the president also promising to be a part of our sponsors.”
“We can agree that most of the athletes bringing glory to Nigeria are women and we feel if we do more and develop a platform that will engage them even more, we can discover more talents and they will continue to make us proud and that is why NAWIS has come up with the idea of having the first edition of NAWIS Games in Lagos.
‘’Lagos state is known for good performance in sports and having the event here is just celebrating what we are known for which is excellence,’’ she said.
According to her sports to be competed for are table tennis, taekwondo, cricket, basketball, sitting volleyball, badminton and handball.
The National president of NAWIS, Prof. Mariam Suleiman National President NAWIS commended Lagos chapter for the initiative.
‘’Lagos is known for bring up good idea for sports development, this initiative is a worthy of emulation by all.
‘’At the national level we are so excited about the games, that why I came from ABU, Zaria with the secretary of the association to part of history.
‘’NAWIS is an association that take anything that involves women seriously, be it in sports or any other endeavour.
“We are happy that the idea of the founding members of the association is yielding results. NAWIS is a force to be reckon with in sports development.
‘’This is the first edition, and we will add more events in the subsequent editions.
‘’To commend our Lagos chapter lead by Tayo Popoola who happened to be one of the founding members of NAWIS for initiativeand good arrangement,” she said.
