Games
By Bushrah Yusuf-Badmus
Ilorin, Sept. 20, 2018 (NAN) The state directors of sports have commended the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development for the successful organisation of the just-concluded 4th National Youth Games (NYG) at the University of Ilorin.
The directors gave the commendation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the end of the Games held from Sept. 7 to Sept. 17 in the ancient city of Ilorin.
Some of the directors, however, called for improvement in the areas of screening and accommodation of athletes in subsequent editions of the Games.
Ezekiel Ordu, Director, Rivers Sports Commission, noted that a more scientific method should be employed in ascertaining the age of the athletes.
“There should be an improvement in screening because we should not be talking about ascertaining age through physical examination of the athletes in this age.
“The Federal Government should get a scientific method to screen the athletes because it will help us in case of protests by disqualified athletes.
“Such measure will help us to ascertain the real age of the athletes instead of having cases of age forgery,” Ordu said.
The Benue Sports Director, Philip Nondo, said that the method of screening adopted at the event in Ilorin should be discouraged in subsequent Games.
“I congratulate the sports ministry for the organisation of the Games.
“No one is perfect; from what we have seen so far, the screening was okay initially by us except for some states that wanted to win medals by all means, and injected athletes that are ineligible to take part in the competition.
“They should stop discouraging the younger ones as the first screening was perfect, but the re-screening was what spoilt the whole exercise.
“So, if you give people some work to do, allow them to do so without interference,” Nondo said.
Deji Shawon, General Manager, Ekiti Sports Council, advised the organisers to fine-tune the accreditation and accommodation arrangements in subsequent Games.
“We ought to have a system to be able to register childbirth so that we don’t always have cases of age cheats.
“There were so many fake birth certificates presented; so, the system should be upgraded so that when we have children right away from birth, they will be registered and won’t have to go through the nitty-gritty such as this.
“There is need to improve on accommodation because these are young children from good homes, sleeping on good beds and from good environment at home.
“For them to come here and sleep anyhow isn’t encouraging; it is something that can be improved upon.
“So, when we come for the next edition, most of these things will be put right.
“There is also the need to improve on feeding because putting little accompaniments on food isn’t the best,” Shawon said.
On his part, Baba Sheshi, Director of Sports in Niger, said that the hostels should be renovated before the next edition of the Games.
“Even the children have derive maximum satisfaction from the Games, and this will go a long way in uniting us.
“But, there is room for improvement in terms of logistics and accommodation though we were told that the university management was ready to start the renovation of the hostels to be used for the just-concluded event.”
Mrs Chizotam Aresola from Imo, expressed the hope that the hostel would be renovated before the 2019 edition of the Games.
“There is room for improvement in the area of accommodation because the plan was to renovate the hostels before the competition.
“So, we hope that by the next edition, they will renovate everything that is due,” the Imo sports chief said. (NAN)
BAY/FLP
=======
(Edited by Folorunso Poroye/Peter Ejiofor)