The Chukwuka and John Foundation has organized its annual basketball competition among young people with seven states participating and Raptors club from Laos state emerging winners of the male category after defeating High Flyers of Benin by 33-27.
In the female category, Discover Team from Warri in Delta State emerged winner after defeating another Warri-based club, Divine Speed by 17-11.
In the third place for female, Edo Girls lost to Bayelsa by 3-13 while Imo Dragons won the 3rd place for the male after defeating the Young Stars of Anambra by 23-15.
The Foundation which is funded by two former sportsmen: Chukwuka Aninwe, a former basketball player in Edo State and John Ogiator, a former weightlifter also presented cash gifts of N100,000, N75,000 and N50,000 for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place male teams respectively while the female teams got N75,000, N50,000 and N35,000 for the first, second and third places respectively.
According to Aninwe, the tournament is to also help promote basketball and sports generally.
“We have almost 500 young people here for this tournament; you can imagine what they could go into without this tournament and you also have several small businesses because of this which has also boosted the local economy.
“We also intend to give scholarships to one or two kids to university level. We will also give the trainers some support to do more and also assist the players so that they can continue in the development of themselves and the state and hopefully one day they can represent the country.
“I was once an Edo State player and the state showed me some love. I am a former basketball player and my partner was a weightlifter, so this is like a payback time for the state.”
On his part, Ogiator said the annual tournament which they started last year already has two students on scholarship at the University of Benin and Benson Idahosa University, adding that more of them would be on scholarship.
He said, “We are doing this to take the kids out of the streets, many of us come from humble family backgrounds.
“We know what we went through in sports and education and we thank God for where we are today and we decided to come together and help those in need and support them through sports and education.”
The participating states included Bayelsa, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Imo, Ogun states.
