The tartan track of the Teslim Balogun Stadium will witness action on Tuesday as the athletics event of the South-West Secondary Schools Championship tagged DAWN Games kicks off.
However on Monday, Team Ogun managed a narrow 1-0 win over their Oyo State counterpart in the football event of the sports fiesta.
Aside the athletics event that will commence on Tuesday, chess and scrabble will also take centre stage at the media centre of the stadium.
At Mobolaji Johnson Sports Centre, Rowe Park on Monday, Team Lagos recorded a mixed fortune in basketball as the boys’ team won their game against Ogun State in a match that ended 73-35 points, while the female team fell to Oyo 22-32.
In Volleyball, Team Lagos’ boys beat Ekiti 3-0 while the female team also thrashed Ogun 3-1.
On Tuesday, events like gymnastics, tennis and table tennis will be concluded with the finals in boys and girls’ categories.
Meanwhile, one of Africa’s International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) blue badge umpire, James Peters, has commended the initiators of the Games, saying the competition is a way of planning for the future of sports in the western part of the country.
Peters, who is directing proceedings in the table tennis events of the ongoing maiden DAWN Games 2014, noted that most of the participating athletes are competing on a big stage for the first time, adding that competition like this will give the athletes self confidence to showcase their talent at the national level.
“I want to commend the initiative of DAWN Games by the Governors of south-west states. I think they meant well for the development of our youths in western part of the country,” said Peters at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, venue of the table tennis events.
“I realise that most of the athletes are coming out for the first time from their respective states, but I’m so excited with the standard of their performance because they played very well to the delight of most of the officials here. I can conveniently say that the future of these players is very bright.
“The gains of this competition is not immediate, but definitely the gains would come because I saw the future champions of this country in these boys and girls,” he said.