Abia humbles Anambra 50:26 as S’East basketball competition begins in Umuahia
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Host State, Abia, Thursday, humiliated Anambra State by 50:26 points as the South East Basketball tournament opened in Umuahia.
Teams from all five states in the zone are participating in the first ever tournament to be hosted by Abia.
Winners of the tournament will represent the zone in the national tournament coming up later in the year.
Declaring the competition open at the indoor Sports Hall of the Umuahia Township Stadium, Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Mr Nwaobilor Ananaba, said the essence of the tournament was to discover young talents early and develop them.
He said that Abia State Government had decided to run sports as business, adding that young talents in different fields of sports were discovered during the just-concluded All Secondary School Games in the state.
The Commissioner said that Gov. Alex Otti had directed the Ministry to identify young talents with a view to supporting them to develop their sports career.
He expressed delight that the Abia team recently assembled had blended well, and displayed great skills against the visiting team.
The Commissioner commended the Abia team for winning their opening games at the first tournament to be hosted by the state.
He also restated the commitment of the State Government towards sports development.
“It’s about developing basket ball from the grassroot. It’s about revitalizing sports in Abia state. It’s about making Abia state, sports destination in future.
“This is not the only competition we are doing .We will make sure that we train these athletes to make sure that when they go to represent Abia state they will bring laurels and also bring money because sports now is business,” he said
In an interview with newsmen, the State Director of Sports, Mr Obioma George, charged the Abia athletes to use the competition to showcase their basketball skill and emerge the zonal champion.
He said that winners of the tournament will represent the zone in the national tournament coming up later in the year.
The Director further said: “In Abia, we are able to harness them from the grassroot, and today all the grassroot basketballers we have selected are representing Abia State in this tournament.”
He commended Governor Otti for his passion and unprecedented support for sports development.
“This is possible because of the basketball realm we have. You can see, it’s Olympic standard.”
Adding his voice, the Technical Director of the tournament and Chairman of Abia State Basketball Association, Mr Victor Okoro, expressed satisfaction with the quality of facilities at the tournament.
Later in an interview, Team Captain of Abia Stars Basketball, Emmanuel Kpatuma, expressed confidence that his team would win in tournament.
The Team Captain who is an undergraduate of Abia State Polytechnic Aba, said his dream was to make a career in basketball.
