The Minister of Sports, Mr Sunday Dare on Sunday met athletes who have been identified from Lagos State and other states in the country including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja by the Technical Committee of the National Youth Games.
The set of athletes excelled in their various sports and are immediately called to national camp by the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports which will transfer them to various sports federations for further monitoring and grooming for their progressions.
Though the full names of the identified athletes could not be ascertained now until the Games is over, as, at the time of going to press, P.M.EXPRESS exclusively got the names of some athletes of Team Lagos in the list. They include Chess players Oluyisola-Abiola Gold Toluwani, Erhijakpor Valerie Mudia and Afolabi Emmanuel (male). In swimming are Oluwasemilore Ogundipe, Abdul-Jabar Adama, Favour Ajube, Agnes John and Oke Naomi who are under the tutelage of Coach Jasper in Lagos, while Okhinaye Destiny (female), Faith Ameh (Female) and Joseph Fortune (Male) complete the list in Tennis.
Sports Minister was so glad to receive the athletes who he said will be more than 250, a number higher than the athletes identified during the 2018 NYG.
“I deliberately came here to see these identified athletes from this year’s National Youth Games. I am so happy to see these young future stars of our country. I want to assure that the Ministry has existing plans for their progression. We will hand them over to their various sports federations which will, in turn, will monitor them for further grooming.
“I want to also assure that beyond sending them to the sports federation, the ministry plans a national camping system that will bring these athletes together under one roof,” Dare said.
He emphasised that the future of sports in Nigeria depends largely on the quality of young athletes at its disposal, adding that effort should be geared toward discovering young budding athletes which have been the primary purpose of setting up the National Youth Games meant for the U-15 athletes.
