More than 800 primary and secondary schools in Abia are participating in the first edition of the Abia School Sports Festival, a state official said on Friday in Umuahia.
Emeka Ikwuagwu, the state’s Commissioner for Youths and Sports Development, said at Osusu Amaukwu Model Primary School in Obingwa Local Government Area (LGA) that the schools were competing in 18 sports.
“The participants are drawn from both government-approved private and public schools, and the competition organised by the Ministry of Youths and Sports Development in collaboration with the Ministry of Education,’’ he said.
The commissioner said the competition was aimed at reviving sports activities in schools, pointing out that sports had gone moribund in schools.
“The essence is to hunt for talents in 18 different sports activities during the three-week long event.
“We want to decentralise and de-emphasise the focus on football, so as to discover talents in other sports and return to the days when we had the likes of Chioma Ajunwa, Mary Onyali, Samuel Chukwueze, Nwankwo Kanu and others.’’
