By S. Siapha Mulbah
The National County Sports Meet has reached Monrovia with the stage where participating county teams need to stand the ground with all it takes to make achievable marks before Liberians that will show up at the venue.
The quarter-finals of the nation’s biggest sports tournament by tradition are played in Monrovia at the national stadium, the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports complex in the City of Paynesville, and only the eight teams that survived the preliminaries are paired in separate fixtures to lock horns on the carpet.
Beginning Saturday, March 27, 2024, the country’s attention will be diverted to Paynesville in the world of sports where Nimba County will start defending her title for the third consecutive time in the football category while Lofa County will be hoping to increase its two-year dominance over other counties in the kickball category.
During the group stage that where recently played in four counties by the 15 political subdivisions, one of the hosts got overpowered in performance by its guests and was unable to qualify a single team in the two categories.
Margibi County using its own Nancy B. Doe Sports Stadium as the venue for Group D. became a victim of a winless span in their two preliminary matches against Grand Bassa County and Lofa County.
They are the only host county that will not participate in the competition because of their elimination at home while other hosts with both kickball and football teams in the county meet quarterfinals are Nimba and Rivergee Counties; Montserrado was only able to qualify her football team from group ‘C.’
The quarterfinalists for this year’s county meet in football are Nimba, Montserrado, River Gee, Bomi, Lofa, Grand Gedeh, Bong, and Grand Bassa Counties.
The quarterfinalists in kickball are Lofa, Gbarpolu, Bomi, Grand Bassa, Nimba, River Cess, River Gee, and Grand Gedeh Counties.
The football category will get underway on Saturday, April 27, when the boys from Fish Town in River Gee open the stage against the Kpatawee Boys of Bong County in an early noon fixture. The same day, the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex will witness a rivalry between Grand Gedeh and Nimba Counties in the last showpiece of the day.
The following Sunday, April 28, Grand Bassa and Montserrado Counties will go toe-to-toe at the back of each other to have the winning side making it in a single slot allotted to both of them. Last year’s defeated finalist, Lofa County, will push for advancement to the semifinal against Bomi County in the last quarterfinal match.
