Volleyball, Handball Frenzy Hit Port Harcourt as FIRS, Team Rivers Take Centre Stage

• NASS, ICPC Also Shine

Port Harcourt, the Garden City, has been aglow between Friday and Saturday as the volleyball and handball events of the Federal Public Service Games took off at the Civic Centre and winners and losers are already emerging.

Team FIRS, the tax masters, showed their mettle on Friday as they took on their opponents in a mouth-watering encounter. With their eyes fixed on the prize, the FIRS squad dug deep to emerge victorious, sending their fans into raptures.

Not to be outdone, the host team, Rivers State, also made a bold statement, dispatching their opponents with ease. The Rivers State squad, buoyed by the cheers of their home fans, played with passion and precision, leaving their opponents in the dust.

The civic centre was electric, with fans from both sides cheering on their teams with gusto. The atmosphere was tense, the action was fast-paced, and the excitement was palpable.

Determined to clinge gold medal at the 43rd Public Service Games in Port Harcourt, Team  Rivers has secured a hard-fought victory in their first volleyball games of the tournament, edging out their opponent in a nail-biting contest.

Captain of Team Rivers, Mr. Prince Ikechukwu, told journalists after their first game on Friday that his team was working hard to pick the gold medal at the end of the event. He said  the the 2-0 victory secured against the National Assembly Team was an evidence of their hard work.

He assured fans that what happened during their first game was just a tip of an iceberg, saying, “this is just the starting and you know when you are starting from somewhere like this it becomes somehow dull because the way the competition is we were not pre-informed that the matches are going to start today, so many of us left and came back and somehow the fortitude was showing on us little by little but we thank God that we triumphed over the National Assembly team, we won 2-0.

“Our service was effective, we really used our service effectively and if you can see that most of the points we got were from the service, they could not return the service back. The target is the gold medal.”

Also speaking, the Volleyball Captain of FIRS, Mr. Owens Salawe described Port Harcourt as a lovely city, noting that the, “hospitality is good, people that don’t stay around here, there are a lot of stories about Port Harcourt but so far it’s been good, calm, we’ve been enjoying the environmental and good food as well.”

On the game, he stated that, “we feel good. We’ve put a lot of hard work and seen us win as a reward for our hard work actually makes us feel really good.”

He explained that sports activities fosters unity among the civil service and Nigeria in general. “Even the people we played with, they were happy and we are happy, we are friends, it wasn’t like winners and losers. It was just friends coming together to play and we enjoyed it and I have made friends.”

In terms of sports development in Nigeria, the captain urged the Rivers Ministry of Sports to “continue to organise competitions like this and most important of all put the facility in place to promote sports development”

He explained that, “when I got into the civic center I said this is a wonderful facility and I wish we have more of this everywhere around town not just around town, but everywhere around the country to promote and develop sports nationwide.”

Fans should expect intense competition and thrilling matches as the Public Service Games which feature teams from various government agencies and institutions continues today in various centers, including tennis which will be played at the Port Harcourt Club.

The volleyball  players returned to the civic centre on Saturday morning, with the NASS team defeating the ministry of communication 3:0, ministry or works 2. Ministry of housing 0, ICPC 2, NAPTIP 0, NASC 15, Ministry of Interior 8.