
Monrovia – Liberia’s most prestigious sporting event, the National County Sports Meet, has reached its quarterfinals stage.
By Christopher C. Walker, [email protected]
The preliminary rounds of the delayed tournament came to an end on Saturday January 18, at the four separate venues, namely Robertsports in Grand Cape Mount County, Zwedru Grand Gedeh County,Greenville Sinoe, and Gbarnga, Bong County.
Out of the four host counties, Sinoe County football team is the only county that didn’t make it to the quarterfinals in both kickball and football.
In football, the teams that will showcase their talents in the last eight are Lofa, Bong, Gbarpolu , Nimba, Cape Mount, Grand Gedeh, Maryland , and Margibi Counties.
While in kickball, the counties that have qualified for the quarterfinals are
Group A,Bong,Bassa Group B,Grand Kru ,Grand Gedeh,Group C, Lofa,Gbarpolu and Group D, Nimba and River Gee counties.
As the counties are preparing to move to Monrovia, Liberians will this Saturday, January 25 -26. 2025 gather in their numbers at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Paynesville City to cheer their counties of origin.
According to the organizers in the football showpiece on Friday January 25, 2025 high-flying Group C winners, Lofa County, will line up against Bong County in the day’s last match, while the boys from Maryland will have a tough match against Gbarpolu County in the first match.
Gbarpolu made it to the last eight on the last day of the preliminary round, following a convincing 2-0 win over Sinoe County, while Maryland County settled to a goalless draw with Bong County to qualify as group leaders with five points.
Lofa County, meanwhile, secured two wins and a draw in group C to win the group with seven points after a draw with Gbarpolu and wins of Sinoe and Rivercess Counties respectively.
Bong had to wait for the last day of the preliminaries to secure qualification as they held Maryland to a goalless draw and defeated Bomi 3-0 but suffered a 2-1 defeat to Grand Bassa on the opening day.
On Saturday, January 26, the boys from Grand Gedeh County will take on the boys of Grand Cape Mount County at 2 PM. After that encounter, title contenders Nimba County will knock boots with the highly motivated Margibi County at 4 PM.
Meanwhile, the organizers of the competition, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, say the basketball version of this year’s event will commence this week at the SKD gymnasium.
The County Meet is Liberia’s biggest sporting event, and the tournament that was postponed from December to January kicked off Sunday, January 12 at the four host venues.
The annual sports festival aims at uniting the people of Liberia and is played among the 15 subdivisions of the country.
Its objective is to scout talents for the various national teams of Liberia, and such objectives are key to sports development and peace promotion.
The County Meet was first organized in 1956 to unify the country.