The Second Vice President, Nigeria Hockey Federation, Mrs Garko Bamidele has charged the state association to be proactive in promoting hockey games.
Speaking on Thursday at the maiden National Hockey Federation 5s Championships holding at the Lekan Salami Sports Complex, Adamasingba, Ibadan, Bamidele said the aims of the competition was to take the children off the streets so as to be useful for their parents and community as a whole.
He said the game of hockey is gaining the attention needed with a series of competitions played both within and outside the country.
According to the Vice Chairman of Lagos State Hockey and South West representative in the Hockey Federation.
“In the ’70s I played in the Hockey World Cup and some people sent us, some people are behind us and I also thought of helping the children too by sponsoring this tournament and taking the children away from the street.
“After the games, they get tired and will be useful to their parents and that is what prompted me to give back to what gave to me and made me whole.
“In my own little way in Lagos, we are reviving hockey, we tried to go to competitions and engage the south west teams and actually we need pitches and we need states to be proactive.
“We have south west states here and even the southern state, some of them I still gave transport money to come down here and that is not encouraging for me.
“In our time the game was popular and it’s coming up again. At least last year we went for 8 Internationals and we have gone to two now. We went for Hockey 5s in Africa and we came second. We also went for Hockey 5s in Oman for the World Cup and we are number 15 in the whole world I believe we are coming in and it’s going to be a gradual revival of sports.”
The competition will end on Saturday where the overall winner will get N700,000 and N500,000 for the second place with the trophy and the third position will get N250,000.
There is going individual award for best goalkeeper, and best player among others.
Wasilat Adegoke the Commissioner for Youth and Sports, said that the objective of this competition is to prepare athletes adequately for forthcoming international competitions.
She said that the competition will also capture young players that will take part in the National Youth Games (NYG) and the adults to represent each state at the next National Sports Festival (NSF), National Para Sports and other notable International sporting events.
Adegoke added that the passion of the sponsor is not only unquantifiable but also unrivalled.
“I commend the sponsor for this laudable initiative of converging hockey athletes across the state to Ibadan, the city of many firsts.
” The state government will not renege on his efforts to develop and promote sports for the benefit of the citizenry,” she said.
The winner will get N700,00 second place N500,000 and third place N250,000 respectively in both male and female.
There will be a cash reward of N10,000 each for the best goalkeeper, the best player, among others.
Eight states are taking part in the ongoing Championships.
The states are Osun, Oyo state, Rivers, Ondo, Plateau, Lagos, Kano state, and Ogun.