KimaSports – Grassroots Sports Development

Background and Experience

Our company Kimasports Ltd. is the Nigerian subsidiary of Kima, Inc. based in Phoenix Arizona, USA. The company is owned by Olympians and our main core values are excellence and integrity in the delivery of our services. We partner with the best coaches and technical experts in the world in the execution of our programs. Here are the highlights of our achievements.

• December 2009 to October 2015, KimaSports implemented a Comprehensive Sports Development Program (CSDP) anchored in the primary and secondary school system, of Cross River State (CRS) of Nigeria.
• Over 300,000 young boys and girls participated in the CSDP during the six-year program implementation period.
• Program achieved results never before envisaged for the youths of CRS. The program enabled CRS to climb to the top and remain as the first in youth sports development and performance in Nigeria.
• Many participants in the program represented Nigeria in various sports at the African, Commonwealth and World levels of competition and won several Gold, Silver and Bronze medals.
• The program has been widely acknowledged as the best model for grassroots sports development in Nigeria.
• 2010: CRS moved up from 10^th place in 2009 to 6^th place at the National School Sports Festival (NSSF).
• 2011: For the first time in its history, CRS emerged first place and national champions at the NSSF.
• 2011 to 2015: CRS won the NSSF every year for four consecutive years until the program was discontinued.
• From its inception in 2011 to 2015, CRS won the Annual South South All Comers Athletics Championships.
• CRS had the best junior team in athletics, boxing, weight lifting and swimming in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015.
• 2013: Four swimmers from this program represented Nigeria and won 14 gold medals at the Africa Zone II Junior swimming championship in Akure.
• 2013: Six program athletes represented Nigeria at the African Youth Athletics Championship and won three Gold medals.
• 2013: Two program athletes represented Nigeria at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Youth World Championships. They both competed in the finals of their events but did not win medals.
• 2013: CRS won the maiden edition of the U-17 National Youth Games held in Abuja.
• 2013: National Youth Games, CRS was by far the best team in boxing by winning four gold, one silver and two bronze medals out of the eight weight categories fought for.
• 2014, three program athletes represented Nigeria at the African Junior Championship in Botswana and won two Gold and one Silver medal.
• 2014: Two athletes represented Nigeria at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon. One of them was 5^th in the 400 meters.
• Blessing Edidiong Odiong, now representing Bahrain, won the gold medal in the women 200 meters at the IAAF U-20 championship in 2016.
• Two female athletes from this program were 6^th and 8^th position in the 100 meters in that same IAAF World U-20 championship in 2016.
• Four athletes from this program participated in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016.
• Since 2011, Patience George Okon, a star athlete from this program has participated in most of the international competitions attended by Nigeria. She has won numerous gold, silver and bronze medals for Nigeria at the African, Commonwealth and other World competitions, including a gold medal at the 2018 African Athletics Championship.
• Since 2010, over 35 athletes from this program have been admitted into Nigerian universities with full scholarship from program funds.
• Kimasports obtained admission with full scholarship for four program athletes to study and pursue their athletics careers in U.S. universities. Two of them have now graduated with their Barchelor’s degree.

KimaSports – Competitions Organized 2010 – 2015

• 2010-2015: Established and organized Annual Local Government Athletics Championships for primary and secondary schools in 18 LGAs of Cross River State.
• 2010 – 2015: For one week each year, KimaSports organized the Cross River State Athletics, Swimming, Weightlifting and Boxing Championships for primary and secondary schools held in Calabar with 3,500 participants representing the 18 LGAs in each edition.
• 2011 – 2015: KimaSports conceived, established and organized the Annual South South All Comers Athletics Championship for primary and secondary schools from the South South states in four age categories. The Elite category of the competition was open to athletes from all 36 states of Nigeria. The annual competitions were held in Calabar.
• Negotiated on behalf of the CRS government with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and secured 250 million naira funding for hosting the Annual AFN/CRS All Nigeria Athletics Championship in Calabar from 2011-2015.
• 2011: Kimasports hosted and co-organized the National School Sports Festival (NSSF) held in Calabar in 2011.
• 2011 – 2014: Served as the CRS Technical Manager for the All Nigeria/CRS Athletics Championship held in Calabar from 2011 to 2014.
• 2013; Boxing tournament between CRS, Abia State and Edo State.
• Chief of Naval Staff Swimming Championships in Calabar, 2013.

KimaSports – Grassroots Sports Development Philosophy

To succeed (as we did in Cross River State) in youth sports development, it takes a clear vision of what you want to accomplish, laser beam focus on your goals, current technical knowledge and expertise in the various sports, contagious passion for the success of the program, genuine love for the youths, a good welfare package, and the human nature to take care of the youths and protect them the same way you would do for your own biological children. You must plan for them to succeed in sports and their educational pursuits concurrently. Above all, you must be imbued with human compassion and empathy because you are working with children from the poorest of backgrounds. Once these conditions are met, and the program is centred on the athletes themselves, there is no limit to what you can get out of them. This is the secret behind the success of our program in CRS. The money, moral support and political cover was provided by Governor Liyel Imoke, who completely took ownership of the program/vision and drove it from top down. The governor’s involvement was the critical key to our success.