Ebonyi State Director of Sports, Emma Utobo yesterday revealed that the state has chosen 11 sporting events ahead of the rescheduled 2024 National Sports Festival, NSF Edition to ensure a successful outing during the ceremony.
The State Sports Director stated this while addressing the sports writers on the preparedness of his team ahead of the upcoming National Sports Competition, NSC scheduled for 16th May 2025 at Abeokuta, Ogun State capital.
"The opening ceremony of the sports festival will be staged on the sixteenth of this month in Abeokuta, the Ogun State Capital and Ebonyi contingents are set for surprises for the upcoming festival," he hinted.
He explained that a few days before the commencement of the sports festival, , Ebonyi state contingents were exposed to the latest training technicalities to enable them to emerge victoriously in their respective games.
Utobo who was weight lifting champion in Russia 88 and six years Africa titleholder in 75 Kilogram class in weight lifting said the games chosen for Ebonyi's sporting talents included footballing for men, badminton, wrestling, cricket, female basketball, athletics, taekwondo, kick-boxing, paralympic games, etc.
Utobo noted that the team of sports managers in Ebonyi staged a critical assessment of the state's previous performance in the sports festival since 1996 when the state was created.
The assessment, according to him, was to ascertain the causes of failure and relative success in the past before taking the decision to focus mainly on eleven (11) sporting events in which the state had the comparative advantage for successful outings.
Utobo who is also the Chairman of the Forum of Directors of Sports in Nigeria commended Governor Francis Nwifuru for responding to the needs of the athletes unlike what they encountered in the previous administrations in the state.
He charged the athletes not to disappoint the Governor and the people of the state in general by putting up their best to win medals in the showpiece.
The State Director of Sports encouraged all athletes in the contingent to exhibit confidence in the spirit of sportsmanship and expressed optimism that Ebonyi would finish among the top five states in the fiesta for the first time in history.
Recall that the National Sports Festival which is a biennial multi-sports competition introduced by the Federal Government and organized by the National Sports Commission(NSC) for the thirty- six states in the country was first staged in 1973 inside the main National Stadium Surulere Lagos.
The game was originally, conceived as a unifying tool to promote peace and cross-cultural affiliation in the country after the Nigeria Civil War that ended in 1970.
