18th NSF: Ekiti Plans Mini Festival For Athletes

The Ekiti State Government, said early in the week that it would organise a mini festival to prepare its athletes for the 18th National Sports Festival, slated to hold in Lagos in November.

The state’s Commissioner for Sport and Youth Development, Folorunsho Olabode, told newsmen that the mini festival would hold in Ado Ekiti.

“The mini festival will enable the state to select the best for the national festival,” he said.

He added that the mini festival would also help the state to determine in which sports it would feature to maximise its performance.

“We will only register for events that we know we will excel most and win gold medals, not just medals and the mini festival will help us determine that,” Olabode said.

The commissioner said that the state, which placed 20th at the last festival in Port Harcourt, had completed plans to improve on its position in Lagos.

According to him, the state government has budgeted enough money to improve and provide good facilities for its athletes training for the festival.

Olabode also said that the increased budget included a good welfare package for the athletes to motivate them to improve their performance at the festival.

He said that the state government had modern facilities on ground for the use of the athletes, adding that the renovation of the Oluyemi Kayode Stadium in Ado-Ekiti had been completed.

“The state had also constructed a new table tennis court while a plan to construct a new indoor sports hall for athletes at the stadium is underway,’’ he said.

He added that some of the state’s coaches had undergone training at the National Institute for Sport in Lagos and Abuja to update their knowledge in new coaching techniques.

The commissioner was confident that all the measures taken by the state government would have a good impact on the state’s performance at the festival.