Former director-general of National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut has marveled over the spate of upsets and shocks that are being enacted at the 19th National Sports Festival, but believes it would have been better had the gathering not been delayed by six years.
Yakmut opined in a chat with sports247.ng that shock results recorded have shown that the sports ministry’s inability to organise the festival regularly has cost Nigeria of exposing talents to the global stage.
He reckoned further that three generation of potentials that would have gone ahead to do Nigeria proud internationally have been missed, since there was no platform for them to be showcased.
Yakmut added: “The National Sports Festival is the intermediary that lies between the Youths Games and elite competitions in the country.
“It is also a platform for developing talents to launch themselves into the full elite level.
“But that duty of exposing young and emerging talents will not be achieved if we keep delaying staging the sports festival regularly.”
