NSF: Golf Federation Clears 28 States

The Nigerian Golf Federation (NGF) has accredited 28 states to participate in the golf event of the on-going 17th National Sports Festival in Port Harcourt.

Moses Anabui, Technical Director of the Federation told correspondents yesterday that the accreditation process was concluded on Wednesday.

“Though the process was successful, we recorded some hitches which involved mostly the duplication and swapping of athletes’ names by some states.

“We discovered that some names appeared on the list of more than one state and we used the master list given to us by the Main Organising Committee (MOC) of the festival, in accrediting authentic athletes,” he said.

Anabui noted that affected athletes were disqualified from participating in the event despite several complaints by their states.

“We directed the affected states which include Bayelsa, Ondo among others, to forward their complaints to the MOC who could adequately redress their grievances,’ he said.

The Technical Director noted that most categories of the event such as: categories one, two, singles and doubles, had been decided.

“We are presently compiling the results and after they have been endorsed by Friday evening, would be made public.

“The official presentation of medals in the concluded categories would be done of Saturday after the results must have been made public,” he said.

He noted that the federation intends to use the festival to discover talents who would be groomed to represent the country in continental and international competitions.

“We would identify athletes who distinguish themselves at this festival, as we are satisfied with the standard displayed so far in the event,” he said.

One of the disqualified athletes from Ondo who spoke under the condition of anonymity, expressed sadness over the development, but expressed optimism that he would still be cleared to participate in subsequent categories.