As part of efforts to compliment government efforts in sports development, the Director New media to the Governor of Bayelsa State, Mr. Kola Oredipe, has presented training kits to Bayelsa State athletics team to the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Edo State.
Items donated include spike shoes, running vest and other training kits.
While presenting the kits to the coach and athletes at the main bowl of the Samson Siasia Sports Complex in Yenagoa, Mr. Oredipe said the gesture was his own way to support and encourage the young athletes to return home with medals from the festival.
The Governor’s Media aide, who recalled his days on the tartan tracks as an athlete, encouraged them young talents to put in their best by making the State proud at the tournament.
“I was just like you from my secondary school days and all through my University days. I was a quarter Miler and represented my University in two NUGA games in Bayero University, Kano in 1997 and University of Lagos in 1998. This is my own way of giving back and encourage young talents to excel in sports”, Oredipe stated.
He commended Governor Douye Diri, who was a onetime Commissioner for Sports and Youth, for his investment in the sports sector and charged the athletes to reciprocate government’s gesture by bringing laurels to the state.
Receiving the kits, the Head coach of the athletics department in Bayelsa State Sports Council, Mr. Maurice Terimoh, thanked the Director New Media to the Governor, for the kind gesture and assured that the kits would be used judiciously.Â
Mr. Terimoh, further said that, as a champion that Mr. Oredipe is, the athletics team will use the kits and produce more champions, and prayed God to replenish him.