The organisers of the just concluded Thunder Games Volleyball competition which took place in Lagos are happy about the overall success of the event which was the maiden edition.
A total of 14 teams comprising six male and eight female teams took part in the Thunder Games 2022, a national Volleyball event, organized by Lekki Volleyball Club.
Two members of the Lekki Volleyball team, Banke Akinwunmi and Sola Aluko have expressed delight over the outcome of the week-long event that took place between October 9 and 15 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
Incidentally, Banke is the daughter of the former 1st Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi and rather that stage football, she chose the spiking game.
“I started playing volleyball in secondary school. Stopped for a while, resumed again and I still play till date. A group of us, volleyballers, who play for leisure decided to establish a proper club and register with CAC in 2021. Our club is called Lekki Volleyball Club.
“We decided to host the maiden event to promote the club but more importantly to promote the presence of volleyball and give recognition to a sport that is unpopular in the country.
“It’s a dream we attained in a very short while and we hope to put Nigeria
in the global volleyball map. We had national players compete at the Thunder Games. It was a great that the winners went home with N1million for male and female respectively”
Two teams from the United States of America (male and female) took part in the competition which had 11 sponsors – Atlas Copco, Manal Nigeria, Air Solution, Malta Guinness, Concreed Capital, Extreme Mutual, Deverill partners, Yellow Sisi, Coolerboy, Bradford Cole and Dafiti.
Barrister Akinwunmi, who witnessed the final won by Keystyle Travels women volleyball team, said he was impressed with the organization of the event, adding that; ‘sport runs in the blood’.
The LOC Chairman of Thunder Games, Olusola Aluko, expressed excitement over the turnout of fans and standard exhibited at the tournament.
“I’m very happy with congratulatory messages from all over the Nigeria including the Nigeria Volleyball federation. We planned well and the event went well. Next year’s event will surely be bigger.” Aluko said.