Sports
17th NSF: RSG Assures On Facilities Completion
Rivers State Director of Sports, Sir Daobu Harvest Harry says that the Rivers State Government is committed to putting in place necessary facilities including accommodation for all participating athletes and officials before the 17th National Sports Festival tagged “Garden City Games 2010” commences in November this year.
Speaking with Tidesports on Friday, at the Alfred Diete Sports Complex at the sports complex in Port Harcourt, Harry stated that work at the new site of greater Port Harcourt City is in high speed as the contractor handling the project have assured competition of work before the date of the National Sports Fiesta.
He debunked claims being peddled around that nothing is on ground to show that the state is preparing seriously to host the sports festival on schedule.
“Sincerely, I will urge all doubting Thomases to take a drive to the site of work to confirm the level of work the Rivers State Government is doing at the moment”, he said.
He continued that even in a situation where the venue of the sports festival is yet to be completed, the state government still have alternatives to fallback at the Shark and Liberation stadiums, which will need only little repairs to host the competition. He wondered why all the noise on shoddy preparations.
On the chances of the state athletes at the fiesta, Harry expressed confidence that Rivers would be hosting to win.
“I can assure you that necessary strategies have been mapped out to ensure that the best performing athletes capable of winning gold medals for the state are contracted and would soon be called to camp to commence intensive work out ahead of the sports meet”, said Harry.
The state sports boss, appealed to spirited individuals and multi-national companies in the state to come forward and support the festival rather than allowing the state government to shoulder all the responsibilities of sponsorship in developing sports in the state.
Iwobi spoke to Tidesports source ahead of Nigeria’s crunch playoff semi-final against Gabon on Thursday, November 13, in Rabat, Morocco.
The 28-year-old was reacting to Nigeria’s shaky World Cup qualifying campaign that saw the Eagles finish second in Group C behind South Africa’s Bafana Bafana.
“We’ve managed to rescue ourselves from the dead,” Iwobi told Tidesports source.
We know we have the players and the abilities to compete against any other country in the world.”
The Fulham star pointed to Nigeria’s star power, highlighting African Footballer of the Year winners Ademola Lookman and Victor Osimhen as proof of the squad’s quality.
“We have last year’s African best player (Ademola Lookman), the year before that (Victor Osimhen),” he said.
“It’ll be a shame if we don’t make it, but we have a lot of confidence. We just have to prove it to ourselves.”
Nigeria’s path to the United States, Canada and Mexico has been turbulent, with two coaches departing during the early stages of qualifying before Éric Chelle steadied the ship to steer the Super Eagles into November’s CAF playoffs.
Four nations from the continent – Nigeria, Cameroon, DR Congo and Gabon – will vie for a solitary spot to compete in next March’s inter-confederation playoffs, with a view to joining the already nine qualified African nations at the Finals.
It would mark Iwobi’s second appearance at the World Cup Finals and the Super Eagles’ first since the 2018 edition of the competition.
Back then, Iwobi featured in all three games as Nigeria was knocked out in the group stage.
The Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Publisher of the Atlantic Bell Online medium, Mr. Celestine Ogolo has advised sports writers in Nigeria to diversify in sports writing and not to concentrate on football reporting alone.
The Deputy National President of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Mr. Bonny Nyong has expressed commitment to support sports development and move SWAN forward.