By Isaac Afolabi
Over twelve states and clubs are participating in this year’s Expro squash tournament organised for male and female under thirteen and seventeen at the squash court of the Ilorin stadium, Kwara state.
The game is put together by a group of former national squash players in collaboration with the Kwara state sports commission and the Kwara state government.
Declaring the games opened, the Kwara state sports commission boss, Mallam Bola Mogaji said he is elated for the choice of Kwara and happy to see kids being exposed to such games at a tender age.
Mallam Mogaji who did not hide his admiration and praise to the executive governor of Kwara state Mallam Abdulkadir for his passion for sports, generally, said sports have enjoyed support under the governor than never before.
Mallam Mogaji boasted that aside the renovation of the swimming pool which is at ninety five percent completion, the governor has renovated several sports court such as the lawn tennis,squash and even building an ultramodern squash court that will have eight court at a time.
The former squash player said Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq did not focus only on football though, he played football actively, give equal attention to all sports.
In his message delivered by the secretary of Squash Expro, Mr Jonah Attah, President Nigeria Squash federation, Mr Boye Oyewunmi said efforts are in the pipeline to complement already established programmes to develop and expose squash players in the country.
Earlier, the chairman of Squash Expros players at home and abroad, Mrs Mubo Laurel Ojo while thanking the state government and other stakeholders said the aim of the group is to give back to the game that made them and inspire new talents for national development.
The technical director of the competition, Mr Don Pedro said the game has carefully added a lot of professionalism into it such as avoiding age cheat,carrier talk and counselling, training for upcoming talents among others.
Mr Pedro said medals and trophy will be awarded to deserving teams and over one hundred and twenty kids from states like Lagos, Niger,Cross River,Ondo,Oyo,Ogun and host Kwara are taking part in the games.
Also an Ex squash player and a member of the group, Mr Niyi Oyewunmi while expressing his happiness for the turnout and passion on the faces of the kids, advised parents and guardians of the talents to combine education with their kids sporting programmes to make them self reliant even after active service.
The game which started on the 27th of April will climax on Saturday April 30th at the Ilorin stadium.