New talents in tennis emerge at S/W vacation clinic
Fatimah Ganiyu and Adeyemi Kasali have emerged winners of both the female and male categories of the 6th Beginners’ Tennis Vacation Clinic organized by the South-West Zone of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports in conjunction with Kayrom Lee Fitness and Gym Center.
The tennis clinic which was held at Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan over the weekend featured beginners from ages 5 to 12.
Addressing the participants during the closing ceremony, Dr. Steve Olarinoye, the Zonal Coordinator, South-West Zone of the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports, recalled that the training programe which he initiated in 2010 was aimed at discovering talents among the school pupils.
He said: “The essence of the clinic is to discover new talents and groom them. We have achieved a lot in the last six years. Majority of the children discovered from this clinic are now playing for states in the south-west, including Oyo State.”
Olarinoye stated that Obafemi Awolowo Tennis Academy, manned by sports’ experts, existed at the stadium to groom discovered talents, saying the academy exposes them to eight different competitions.
In her remarks, the Chief Executive of Kayrom Lee, Mrs. Romoke Ayinde who had been supporting the programme from its inception by providing various gift items and edibles to the kids lauded the programme, calling for such catch them young initiatives in other sports.
According to the Kayrom Lee boss, it is from such initiatives that the likes of Serena Williams, Andy Murray could be discovered at their tender stages and nurtured to fly the nation’s flag at the international level.
“This clinic is also another way of taking the eyes of the child off social vices. In the next 10 years, we will have some of them discovered here competing at international level,” she further noted.