The game of Dart that made its first appearance in the national sports festival event in the year 2006 is fast attracting attention from the younger generation thereby showing the elders the exit door after just a few years in the national fiesta.

Formerly a club game played by matured minds, now the younger generation are speedily taking over the event thereby making it more competitive.

This reporter spoke with some officials of the game and they seem excited with the new development in the game.

Olufemi Fabode, Ondo

Its been good though we’ve just been able to pick one bronze medal because younger ones are been brought up into the game now and they are phasing out the old hands and its as if we are getting tired and I believe its now time for us to leave the stage for the younger ones.

It’s also a lesson for every other state that they have to go to the grassroots from secondary school level and pick dart players into this dart games. Though dart is new but some states have been forging ahead. They’ve been able to have an academy that their players who are that younger ones are doing well unlike some other states that came with older players who have been so long in the game and just like the game of football where we have tired legs, we also have tired hands too in dart but the competition is okay. Honestly, more younger players should be encouraged to come into darts and that is what we are going to do in my state now. We are going to recruit younger players because they will do it better.

Audrey Team manager, Dart, Nasarawa

For now, we’ve been faring well because at least, for the male we’ve reached quartter-finals and now they are on third game on mixed double and we have every hope to reach the finals. For us in Nasarwa, Darts has come to stay.

Darts is going a long way because very soon we are going international. The team being sponsored by the Nigeria Dart Federation which was given birth to recently, sometime in June, that’s the dart federation, so I think that with what is on ground right now, we are moving ahead.

Now you see new faces. Young players between the ages of 22 and 27 years are coming up and you see the middle age giving way to the youth because before it was a club game but now that it has been enrolled into a medal winning event in 2006 at Abeokuta, more youths are picking up.

Toju Matt Tuoyo, Delta

The game is just starting, this is just the beginning. It’s not over until it’s over. We’ve  tried in this competition though not as good as Kaduna but we’ve won about three silver and two bronze but no gold medal yet but there is hope because we still have six events to go and am very hopeful of gold.