By: PATRICK TITUS, Uyo
Cash prizes of 18 million Naira (N18m) has been rolled out for a win at 2nd Akwa Ibom State Youth Sports Festival otherwise called ‘Akwa Ibom State Olympics’ due to commence from 2nd of next month at the Nest of Champions, Uyo.
Commissioner for Youth and Sports in the State, Mr. Monday Ebong Uko who disclosed this at the flag-off the game today, said out of it, N10 m will go for 1st prize, N5m for 2nd while N3m would be given to 3rd place winner.
Uko also added that awards would be given to individuals and corporate bodies in appreciation of their meaningfully contributions to the success of the event.
According to him, a total of 13 sports would be competed in the primary school categories while 26 would be in the secondary school categories including Rugby and Roller Skate.
The competition, he said, is meant to discover, harness and propel the youthful sport talents in the nooks and crannies of the State. It is organized in stages of local government areas elimination and state finals.
After the dismal outing of Nigeria at last Olympic Games in Rio, the Youth Sports Festival is also targeted at assisting “the country in the area of sport talents production aimed at discovering a pool of indigenous athletic champions that will fly Nigeria flag at future Olympics Games and other international sports championships, ” Mr. Uko stated.
To achieve objectives, the Commissioner said, the ministry will rely much on the local government authorities to ensure even representation by the best athletes devoid of any favouritism and bias.
He sounded that the ministry would not hesitate to disqualify any local government area that violets the rules of the games, adding that grey areas observed during last year edition have corrected.
According to the Youth and Sports Commissioner, the competition is open for sponsorship from private and corporate individuals willing to partner in order to promote sports in the state.
The maiden edition was inaugurated last year and had over 30,000 school pupils and students in attendance including the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalung as well as other sport stakeholders across the country.
Oruk Anam local government area came 1st having won a total of 155 Medals, comprising 79 Gold, 51 Silver and 25 Bronze.
Some of those discovered youthful talents represented Akwa Ibom State at last National Youth Games in Ilorin where the State clinched 2nd place out of 36 states.
Worthy of note also, is that some of them are currently enjoying scholarships and sponsorships deals abroad.
