All is now set for the Rivers State Athletics Championships aimed at selecting talented
athletes that will represent the state at the 19th National Sports Festival dubbed paradise
games.
Rivers State sports commissioner,Boma Iyaye who made this known after a Tennis training
session in Port Harcourt, said the Championships will get underway from the 7th-10th
December 2016.
The championship would also be used to discover new talent to fill the vacuum created by
some of our retired athletes.
“We have been having Championships of this magnitude except that they were not geared
towards a particular meet like the National Sports Festival”.
“This Athletics Championship is to ensure that young and talented Athletes from the 23
local government areas in the state are selected and subjected to rigorous training before
the games in Calabar”.Iyaye said
Though there is no tentative date for the commencement of the games despite suffering
several postponement, Boma Iyaye, however said athletes recruited during the four day
Championships would be on open camping until a tentative date for the games is made public.
“It is true the game has no date for now that is why it look as though we have been dilly
dallying”.
“So those recruited during the championship will go into open camping, that means they will
be coming from their homes and train with our coaches from the sports council”.
“But close to the festival, we will go into close camping and perfect our strategies for
the games”. Iyaye stressed