Athletes gunning for medals at the 18th National Sports Festival hosted by Lagos in 2012. The hosting right for the 19th edition of the competition, which was expected to hold in Calabar in 2014, has now been withdrawn from Cross River State. The event will now hold in Abuja… in November. PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI.
Cross River State will no longer host the 19th National Sports Festival, the National Council on Sports decided yesterday in Kaduna.
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At its meeting held at the General Hassan Katsina House, Kaduna, the National Council on Sports, which comprises states’ commissioners of sports, directors of sports, chairmen of states’ sports councils, sports policy facilitators and other representatives in the sports sector, arrived at the decision through a voting process supervised by Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung.
Having postponed the 19th National Sports Festival for six years, the Council resolved that the continued delay of the hosting of the festival was detrimental to the growth of Sports in Nigeria and therefore withdrew the hosting rights from Cross River State while the Federal government will hold the 2018 edition in Abuja in November.
The council also approved the reduction of the age of athletes eligible to participate in the National Youth Games and adopted 15 years as upper limit of age for participants, while over-aged athletes, their erring coaches and states will be disqualified and fined the sum of N250, 000 per disqualified athlete.
The council also adopted a presentation to National Council on Establishment on Lateral Conversion of Coaches to enable them to progress in their cadres.
Source: G Sport
