Female sportswomen are our pride, Director says

The Lagos State Director of Sports Development, Moses Kolawole said that the sportswomen from the state excelling at local and international competitions were the pride of the state.

Kolawole stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the performance of Nigeria’s girl child in sports and the Super Falcons at the 2023 Women's World Cup.

Kolawole said that the state, through the intervention of the sports commission, had ensured adequate support for sportswomen and their development, hence the rewarding records.

“It is so heart warming that the Super Falcons are doing well at the 2023 Women World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, with some players of Lagos origin.

“Lagos believes in gender equality as the saying goes “What a man can do, a woman can do it better”.

“This is what we have been preaching, so we have not left our females behind in the scheme of things.

“We have been emphasising on girl child empowerment in our entire different sports programme in LSSC.

“When we see athletes like Tobi Amusan who is a world champions this should give us more encouragement.

“We also have world-class players in the Super Falcons such as Asisat Oshoala and Rasheedat Ajibade; they are profound Lagos sportswomen, and that is to say, our girls are doing well,” he said.

Kolawole also assured of the state’s readiness to support more women involvement in sports.

“This time around looking at the success of our females so far, we will not shy away from further promoting these girls in all categories of sports.

“We are also ready to encourage whoever that we see that have potentials and talents wherever we see that they are good we will nurture them to stardom.

“This gesture will give us a good image that Lagos State is gender sensitive, and when it comes to sports, we always give equal chances with further push,” he said.

Also speaking, the Secretary of the Lagos State Cycling Association (LSCA), Olawaye Ige, said that females in the sport would be tracked through a centralised database in the state.

“We are working on having a unified database for all the cycling clubs in Lagos State.

“We have some of the cycling clubs we have been working with, but we have many cycling clubs in Lagos. What we intend to do is harmonise them all so as to track the outstanding female cyclists.

“Lagos has been doing well in cycling, and we want to continue with the format. We have seen the potential of females in other sports, and we won’t leave our own behind.

“We will further encourage more females to participate in the 2nd Cycling Lagos expected to be held starting on Oct. 21,” he said.