Rivers, Six Other States Qualify For Quarter Finals In Men’s Cycling

Seven states have qualified for the quarterfinals of the men’s 200m cycling event in the on-going  17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt.

The states are Rivers,Imo,Kaduna, Oyo, Edo, Nassarawa and Abuja. The quarter finals will be held on June 30.

Cycling is one of the  event which began ahead of the opening ceremony of the festival scheduled for July 3 at the Liberation Stadium Port Harcourt.

The men’s 200m sprint heats were decided along Aggrey Road in Port Harcourt .

The Secretary-General of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria,Mrs Thecla Opara told correspondents in Port Harcourt on Tuesday,  that 13 of the 18 states which reported for the festival took part in the first cycling event.

Cycling has a total medal capacity of 15 gold,15 silver and 15 bronze medals.

Opara said the states have been doing well since the cycling event began.

“We had our first race today (yesterday) with the cyclists and presently, we have about 18 states that have reported for the festival.

“So, our first race was 200 meters sprints and it took place at Aggrey Road and we have about 13 states that participated and so far they have been doing very well.

“The event has been going very well and am impressed with the turn out. A lot of states were present and hopefully  by tomorrow (today), I know most of them would have reported for the festival, so far, the festival is going very well,’’ she said.

Opara said the federation would use the festival to discover new talents for future national and international cycling events.

Coach Bashir Mohammed,national cycling coach says new talents have been discovered in the sport in the on-going 17th National Sports Festival.

One of them is Edward Osim of Rivers State who came first in the men’s 200 m sprint heat.

Mohammed told correspondents in Port Harcourt yesterday that the new talents have knocked out the defending champion in the men’s 200m sprint.

He said the new talents would be camped after the National Sports Festival.

“In today’s (yesterday) race I am  impressed indeed, in the fact that there are some new discoveries. You can see that the defending champion in this event did not even qualify to take part in the sprint event.

“So, I am impressed with the turn out and there are some boys coming up. “We will try to encourage them and to expose them to national and international competitions

“Like the person I forsee picking the gold medal is one young cyclist from Rivers,he is a new boy and we are going to  take him to the national camp immediately after this sports festival

“We are going to  have a kind of five day coaching clinic at the Valedrome,so that we can introduce them to the track racing,” he said.

He said  Nigeria has  a lot of talents that could  become world and African champions in the track.

Mohammed said there might be more upsets in the cycling event and that the inability of the defending champion to go beyond the first round of the 200m men’s sprint, was an indication that the events would be keenly contested.

“There are lots of revelations and there will be lots of upsets. New boys will emerge champions in the sprints,’’ he said.