The three-day tournament holding on December 13 to 15; is expected to be a yearly competition having received the support of the Nigeria Rowing Canoe and Sailing Federation (NRCSF) will attracts hundreds of participants.
According to the initiator of the tournament, Maleek Shehu, one of aims of the tournament was to put the waterway to use, adding that the idea has received tremendous support from stakeholders in private and public sectors.
“For the past two and half years, we have been working on this and having put everything in place, we believe we are set to stage the maiden edition of the tournament that will help to put our waterway to use. This kind of event will add colour to our waterway and this will also boost tourism in Lagos State. The maiden edition will have four titles to be competed for with winners emerging in the King of Sea, Queen of Sea, Prince of Sea and Princess of Sea categories. All stakeholders including the marine police, Nigeria Ports Authority among others are involved in the tournament. Also safety precautions have been put in place to ensure that we compete under a safe atmosphere,” Shehu said.
For the President of NRCSF, Rear Admiral Festus Porbeni (rtd), the federation would throw behind the tournament with the aim of unearthing talents at grassroots levels. “We are so excited with this kind of initiative that will raise the profile of water sports. When we were contacted, we were so excited with this and we hope and believe this can help us to raise home-grown athletes from this kind of tournament,” Porbeni said.
Also, Shehu said the tournament is aimed at supporting the less privilege particularly the riverside areas in Lagos State, as funds would be channeled to provide basic amenities for riverside areas in Lagos.
Already over 300 athletes have been selected from riverside communities and are expected to compete in the rowing and canoeing event of the competition with the sole aim of helping to discover talents.
The safety consultant for the tournament, Ladi Ani-Mumuney, believes staging this kind of event would ignite interest in water sports as well as impact the country economically.