No fewer than 14,000 athletes will vying for medals as the 21st National Sports Festival taking place in Asaba, Delta State, is set to kick off.
The Steven Keshi Stadium is the venue for the 11-day national sporting fiesta that began with an opening ceremony on Wednesday and run through December 10.
Earlier in the week, the ministry of youth and sports development announced that the festival would return to its full strength of athletes, following a decrease to 8,000 competitors in 2021 due to COVID-19 and its dire restrictions.
In the statement signed by Mohammed Manga, the sports ministry’s director of press and public relations, Dare described the NSF as the “Nigerian Olympics.”
He added that more sporting activities will be discovered to put the country on the global map.
“I am optimistic that at the end of the competition, budding talents will emerge, and the country will witness more podium performances through them in subsequent global competitions,” Dare said.
All thirty-six states, including the federal capital territory registered for the NSF and will be participating in different sports.
Dare had said other African countries would also participate in this year’s edition, with invitations extended to Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Benin Republic and Sierra Leone to present teams in Asaba.
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