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ES 
The municipal basketball academies began training this Monday, January 23, on the courts of the Luis Alfonso Velásquez Flores park.
When inaugurating the new year, Vice Mayor Enrique Armas Rosales reiterated the commitment of the municipal government to guarantee free access to children and youth, to sports in all disciplines.
“The municipality has three basketball academies, made up of almost 200 athletes, one in the Luis Alfonso Velásquez Flores park, which has been active for more than 5 years with 120 registered athletes, another in the Hugo Chávez Sports Complex, located at 14 de Septiembre with 35 young people and the one from the Amistad Japón – Nicaragua park that has 40 kids, registration is free and the requirements that athletes must present are to be between 6 and 17 years old, present a photocopy of the child's birth certificate or girl and a photocopy of the parent's or guardian's ID, in the case of new athletes they can register on training days, ”said Armas.
The training days for the Luis Alfonso Park academies will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday at two times, from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and in the afternoon from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
While, the academies that work in the Japanese park and the Colonia 14 de Septiembre, the practices will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, always with two schedules, so that those who study in the morning can go to their practices in the afternoon. and those who go to classes in the afternoon can train in the morning.
"Since 2014, the Mayor's Office of Managua, through the Sports Directorate, began to lead projects and programs that promote and facilitate free access to sports for both children and young people in the capital, as a result of this work to date. 2,460 athletes have been recruited in 35 municipal academies distributed in 13 sports disciplines”, recalled the Vice Mayor of the capital.
Lorena López, a fifth-year high school student, is 17 years old and has been practicing basketball at the municipal academy for 3 years.
“Since I was a child I liked basketball, but I started training 3 years ago when a friend invited me to come to the park and that is the good thing about the Mayor's Office, which gives us the opportunity to practice and learn for free what we like the most, Besides, sport can open up many opportunities for us, it keeps us away from bad friendships”, expressed López.
