Nigeria’s first private inter-school swimming competition, Dolphin Swimming League, has continued to thrill parents and guardians, who admitted the tournament has been impressive since its inception four years ago.
The league, which is in its fourth season this year, has witnessed the emergence of new swimming stars like the Kanu siblings, with sports followers describing it as a platform for national handlers to identify talents.
For the Director of Priory Preparatory School, Ikoyi, Alice Dina, the tournament has provided the students opportunity to compete against their counterparts from other schools, as well as engendering healthy rivalry among the students.
“We decided to join because we have some promising swimmers and it is great to have competitions, where it is well organised and the children are well catered for.
“The aim is to catch up with schools better than us and we also feel it’s time to start taking part in competitions like this to give the children an opportunity to compete.
Akinyemi Abiodun, Head of PE/Sports, Italian International School, described the league as impressive, adding: “I’m excited and very impressed about this collection, it has been a very good one.
“Being our first time participating in this competition, we just want to first of all participate because it’s very key to us and we have been able to win one or two medals but our number one objective was to come and participate and be among the elite athletes.
“This type of competition is what our sporting bodies need to focus more on, we need to have series of competitions like this and also great facility setup in different states across Nigeria to compete with countries like Australia, Nigeria and other heavyweight countries at the swimming events in Olympics.
because this age group competition is the foundation and we must support it to make it grow to get to the level we can compete globally.”
For the head of Elementary School, Grange, Alisa Griffiths, there must be conscious efforts to provide sports facilities in schools across Nigeria.
“There is a need for full commitment from education organisations, finance sector and sporting bodies to provide facilities, training opportunities for coaches to develop so many Nigerians interested in swimming and to provide as much exposure on wider platforms as possible to compete heavily with countries in the Olympic sports,” she said.
