BY ISONI ISONI, Calabar
Cross River State contingent of 362 athletes and 56 officials will storm Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State Capital today for the maiden edition of the Niger Delta Sports Festival scheduled to flag off in Uyo.
The festival will run from today through April 8, 2025.
According to the Director of Sports in the Cross River State Sports Commission, Moses Agbor, the state athletes that have been in camp at the UJ Esuene Stadium hostel since after their pre-festival trials will feature in 17 Sports.
The sports he mentioned are Athletics, Swimming, Wrestling, Chess, Volleyball, Handball, Scrabble, Para- weight lifting, Boxing and Canoeing. Others include Football, Table Tennis, Basketball, Traditional Wrestling, Para-athletics and Tennis.
Moses Agbor who has been a house name in the country’s sports scene having discovered a lot of swimmers who did the state and nation proud at the international level said that Cross River, being a model by dominating the National School Sports Festival over the years, will as usual feature young athletes under the age of 25 in line with the rule spell-out by the organisers of the big championship.
While calling on other participating states to abide by the rules and shun cheating, the Director of Sports used the opportunity to commend the organisers of the Niger Delta Sports Festival for providing data for all the athletes from the trials that will run through the festival.
He said that their vision to provide data for all the athletes is a dream come true and unprecedented in our sporting history adding that this is something that the National has failed to do over the years.
Niger Delta Sports Festival is the brain-child of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) as a Sports Intervention Project.
The 8-day sports extravaganza is powered by NDDC with nine dtates involved in the Championship. The States are Akwa Ibom, Rivers, Ondo, Imo, and Abia. Others include Cross River, Bayelsa, Edo and Delta.