FIC REPORT (LAGOS STATE) – Team Lagos has thrown its hat into the ring for a place at the 23rd National Sports Festival, launching its qualification bid this week at the South West Zonal Elimination Series holding across Oyo State.
The series, running from September 13 to 16, 2026, doubles as the gateway to November’s main event in Enugu State, with team sports — football, basketball, volleyball, cricket, and beach volleyball — being contested in both male and female categories at the Liberty and Lekan Salami Stadiums.
Lagos is chasing qualification in all five disciplines, and camp sources describe a squad in good shape: no injuries, no last-minute scares, and morale reported high across every team. The Centre of Excellence will need to see off competition from five other South West rivals — Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ondo, and Ekiti — all vying for the same limited qualifying slots.
At the Games Village, sited within the Federal Cooperative College in Eleyele, Team Lagos basketball coach Alimi Olawale struck a confident but measured tone, acknowledging the quality of the opposition while backing his side’s experience to see the job through.
“Most of the states have very good players; they also want to qualify and play at the National Sports Festival proper. We’ve been here for a long time, and we know how to navigate the contours to pick the two available slots for the men’s and women’s events,” Olawale said.
He was clear that qualification is only the first target. “What is paramount now is to pick the qualifying tickets and then plan on how to win gold medals in both the male and female categories at the championship in Enugu, and then improve on our performance from the last edition in Ogun State, where we won gold in the men’s category and bronze in the female category,” he added.
That Ogun State outing — gold for the men, bronze for the women — sets the benchmark Lagos is now looking to surpass in Enugu.
The National Sports Festival carries symbolic weight beyond the medal table. First staged in Lagos in 1973 in the aftermath of the Civil War, it was conceived as a vehicle for reconciliation, healing, and national integration. More than five decades on, the biennial competition — widely dubbed Nigeria’s “Mini-Olympics” — remains the country’s premier multi-sport showcase, drawing athletes from all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory across dozens of disciplines.
For now, though, the immediate focus is Oyo. With the zonal series still unfolding through the weekend, Team Lagos will be looking to turn its early confidence into results on the court, pitch, and sand — and punch its ticket to Enugu.
Sourced and Reported by:
IYEDEH Onowouzou David
ACIO&PRO
15/09/2026
