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Chief E.K Clark National Wrestling Championship: We will revive the spirit of wrestling in Nigeria—Hon. Ochei
Speaker of Delta State House of Assembly Rt. Hon. Victor Ochei was in Warri today to visit the Brownhill Event Center, venue of the forthcoming Chief E.K Clark National Wrestling Championship. In an interview with our correspondent, Frank Efe,He bared his mind on the importance of the championship, the way to revive wrestling, using the event to prepare wrestlers for International Competitions and why Delta State remains the number one sports state in the country. EXCEPT:
You are on inspection tour of the wrestling facility here in Warri and you have seen the facilities, how do you feel and what is your recommendation?
I must say that I am very impressed with the venue you have chosen and this is about the best indoor facility we have in Warri and we cannot say because we do not have indoor facilities and we deny competitions of this nature coming to Warri. This is the very maiden edition of the E.K. Clark wrestling competition and we intend to revere the elder state man as a mark of honour and make the best of it and in that way we are selling Delta state. Delta state is the number one sports state in the country and we intend to hold that position. These are ways to develop traditional sports in the country. Wrestling is synonymous with the Ijaw areas. By bringing in this competition to Warri, we are trying to attract all the competitors around all the environs. For other arrangements we are pleased with the composition of the L.O.C and I am very certain that we will make the best of the events.
When is this competition coming up?
The competition is going to start by July 24th-29th of this year. We are expecting a lot of dignitaries and we are going to make the best of it. This is the first event and like I told you, we are going to make it an international event after now. We are going to make it international, where we are going to bring in international wrestlers. For this edition, the competition is going to be national. Chief E.K. Clark is a national figure and it is in his honour that this is being done.
What is the significance?
First and foremost, Chief E.K Clark is a Deltan from Kiagbodo and if we must, we will always do everything to celebrate him. The significant of these events as it relates to sports is to harness our talents. It is important that we begin to pick our talents at a very earlier stage where we can have a pool to feed our senior teams for every competition. I can tell you that wrestling brings a lot of medals to Delta, so if we do it for Delta State, the state will also feed the nation with wrestlers because they will compete at international level, particularly in the Olympics in 2016. We are already targeting the Olympics in 2016 and we are beginning to groom them. So if we make this an international competition, you will be rest assured that we will begin to get our boys to compete with international wrestlers and we are grooming them and preparing for the Olympics. We do not have to wait till that time. We do not want fire brigade approach any more.
What will be your advice to those professional wrestlers on how to revive the Sport in the country?
Mine is to tell them that they should come and see the new change in wrestling. Wrestling was our on traditional event where people gather in the village to watch. But we relegated it for other sleeker sports events. But if we make it sleek like the way we are doing it now, be rest assured that it will also attract a lot of wrestlers coming into the event. Our style is to give wrestling its pride of place and ensure that at the end of the day we are going to have more people interested in the sports.
The competition is open to all participants in the country. Once they register and they want to be part of the competition that is it. The national wrestling federation is there to take care of all these.
What is your message to the Delta as the hosting state?
My message to Delta is that we should know that we are the best in sports. We must not rest in our oars and we must work hard to maintain the position. And also bringing this competition to Warri is to ensure that, Warri as the hob of activities, we must ensure that sporting activities picks its steam from this point. And Warri has been denied some international competitions before because of one thing or the other. But we now want to begin to showcase some of the things we have so as to attract more competitions and as far as possible we will be able to localize this sport to the taste of ethnic flavor. We are going to make the best of sports in the state.
