The
Commissioner of Police Lagos, Mr Fatai Owoseni yesterday (Sunday) unveiled the
trophy of the maiden edition of the Chamberlain Squash Open (CSO) at a
colourful opening ceremony held at the Lagos Country Club, Ikeja Lagos.
Speaking
the event, Lagos Police Chief hailed the Promoter of the CSO, Mr Chamberlain
Usoh for putting together what he described as a beautiful and excellent
initiative worthy of support.
"If
Chamberlain that is not extremely rich can put together this, then it should be
supported because the more you keep people out with meaningful engagements like
this, the more you keep them out of crime.
"When
the youths see the prizes to be won, they will want to be deeply involved in
the programme.
"The
debut game that was played was by a police guy called Jerry and another fellow.
We have some other players too from the police.
I
came here to cheer my people. We hope the best player wins but I have told
Chamberlain the trophy is coming to the Police.
"This
is a good event that attracted local and foreign players. The second edition
will be bigger for sure and it deserves support", he said.
Also
speaking at the event, the Technical Director, Lagos State Squash Association,
Captain Adedayo Awobokun also hailed the promoters of the CSO for the
initiative.
"This
is lovely and it has reinforced the belief that squash is not dead in Nigeria.
It is actually the best game in the world. So we thank Chamberlain for putting
this together", he said.
Speaking,
the initiator and promoter of CSO, Chamberlain Usoh described the gathering as
very unique.
"As
we serve off, we look forward to seeing lots of you not just today but in years
ahead since many more of this competition will come up. We want you all to have
a good time.
"Hopefully,
with support from the Nigeria Squash Federation, the Ministry of Sports and the
players, we all will come together to form a strong partnership to grow the
game. Squash is alive and well in Nigeria", he said.
Meanwhile,
the competition began yesterday amidst fanfare as the 89 players than
registered for the competition, including the world's best player, Tom Ford,
were on ground to play the preliminary games.
Up
for grabs for the tournament is $12,000 for both the male and female
categories.
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Sports