The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has confirmed that some international teams have been invited to participate in the forthcoming National Sports FestivalNational Sports Festival (NSF), Delta 2022 which is scheduled to hold between November 28 – December 10 in Asaba, Delta State.
Speaking on a Radio Nigeria network programme Have Your Say, in Abuja recently, the Minister said invitations have been extended to Ghana, Cameroon, Cote’d’Ivoire, Guinea, Benin Republic, and Sierra Leone to present teams that will be part of the games.
“The National Sports Festival, Delta 2022 is our own Olympics,” the Minister said. “We want to make it an African show so we are adding some international flavours to it with the participation of teams from at least four West African countries. And we are hoping to have about sixteen to eighteen thousand athletes in Delta State.”
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Meanwhile, the qualifiers of team sports for the Games took place across each zone in the country in the first week of the month of October.
In Volleyball, the favourite, Ondo State, missed out on qualification for the main event as Ogun and Lagos State picked the two Southwest slots available for the male category.
Oyo and Lagos State will represent Southwest in the female category.
For Basketball, Lagos and Ogun State qualified for the main event in the male category, while Ondo and Lagos State picked the female Southwest slot.
Lagos and Oyo State will represent Southwest in football events, both in the male and female categories; likewise in Baseball.
Lagos and Ogun picked the male slots in Handball, while Oyo and Lagos will represent the region in the female category.
In Hockey, Lagos and Oyo States qualified for the male category just as Lagos and Ogun will represent the zone in the male category.
