NOC gathers athletes, paralympians, others to celebrate Olympic Day in Lagos

The spirit of Olympics was once more revived as the Nigeria Olympic Committee gathered athletes, Paralympians and other sports enthusiasts to celebrate the 2019 Olympic Day in Lagos.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the International Olympic Committee has set the month of June aside as a movement and activity promoting mass participation of sports.
The 2019 Olympic Day was, however, held at the open field of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, which had in attendance, the Secretary-General of NOC, Oladapo Olabanji and the Head, NOC Games, Olumide Oyedeji.
Others in attendance were, the Chairman, Sports for All, NOC, Anthony Oyetayo, member, NOC Marketing Committee, Bunmi Ogunfunwa, athletes and Para-athletes.
The events at the Olympic Day celebration includes Walk-out, Tug of War, Rope games and Para-relay race.
The Secretary-General of NOC, Olabanji, said that the significance of the celebration was to re-lieve the spirit of Olympics and also to foster unity among sportsmen.
He said: “This day is to create and re-live the spirit of Olympic Day in all and also to celebrate sports as the true unifier of all races.
“To say the fact, sports is the only activity that does not discriminate, rather it foster unity and bridges gaps and makes everything possible to create a unique entity.
“We are happy to have a good number of sportsmen and women, people of all races to celebrate sports today, we are quite impressed with the attendance and we hope to improve on that come next year.
“The spirit behind this day is simply unity.”
The Chairman, Sports for All, NOC, Oyetayo said that sports could be more useful if everyone would realise the positive impact of sports on the society.
Oyetayo said: “We can fully appreciate sports if we can look beyond what we think it is by considering the positive impact of sports on the society.
“We can move sports to a greater height if all stakeholders both private and public will come together to support thereby we will be aiming at reducing youth restiveness in our country.
“By the time we harness the positive impacts of sports, then, we would have reduced or solved the problem of youth vices more than half way in the country.”
A member of Marketing Committee, NOC, Bunmi Ogunfunwa, told NAN that the day was a memorable day for all sportsmen all over the world.
She said: “This day is important to us all as sportsmen because it is a unifying day for us all to come together to celebrate sports.
“We are mostly grateful to all our sponsors who made it possible in spite of the short notice.”