Grange, St Saviour’s Scoop Dolphin Swimming League Awards

Grange School, Ikeja, and St Saviour’s School, Ikoyi, emerged as the best secondary and primary school at the award ceremony of Season Five of the annual Dolphin Swimming League held at the weekend in Lagos.

Grange  School, considered a dominant team in swimming, continued its reign as the best secondary school of the foremost private inter-school swimming competition with 1,270points to lift the coveted trophy presented by the former President of Nigeria Aquatics Federation, Babatunde Fatayi-Williams. St Saviour’s garnered 1,124 points to beat Boken Aquatics to the title in the primary section.

For claiming 13 gold, two silver, and one bronze medals throughout the season, Tofunmi Ibidapo of Grange was adjudged the best overall female swimmer while her counterpart from Grange Aidan Dumuje-Abili claimed the male best overall swimmer with 24 gold medals.

Lagos Preparatory & Secondary School Ikoyi, Lagos was adjudged as the most organised team while Greensprings School and Atlantic Hall carted home the Fair Play award in the primary and secondary sections.

Ugo Stanley Chinedu of St Saviour’s School and Alade Ebimowei Simon of Grange School were awarded the most productive coach awards; Tesese Ahenjir of Greensprings and Hussein Ali Saade of Children’s International School (CIS) won the Best Newly Discovered Talent awards.

Speaking at the award ceremony, the head of technical for the event, Samuel Jesimiel, lauded the schools while urging other schools to join the tournament. “The just concluded season five produced so much for Lagos State and even for Nigeria because most of the swimmers here in Dolphin League have represented Nigeria in international competitions including the junior championships in Africa, and the West Africa Zone 2.

“The forthcoming season six will improve the standard of the league and enhance the productivity of the coaches. Now that swimming has been included in the Olympics for the 2024 Paris Games, the children now have something to look forward to and aspire to represent Nigeria. With that, we will have a lot of children coming into swimming and the number of participants will increase,” he added.

Fatayi-Williams however, called for more support for the organisers in subsequent editions.

“It’s even more important that the organizers get more support now that Nigeria is back competing at the Olympic Games so that athletes from the league can get the opportunity to represent Nigeria in the future,” he said.

Ann Dankaro, a parent and one of the major supporters of the league lauded the organisers for their commitment to the tournament while urging parents and guardians to support the initiative. “I think the league has done very well so far. So, going forward, we want to see the children consolidate what they learnt. We want to see new achievers and l think parents should support their children especially those that are passionate about swimming. Many times, the dreams for swimming are more for the parents than the children but when you find the children are passionate about something, I think we should throw