Tokyo Olympics: Nigeria set to open four camping sites
Barely 48 hours after the curtain fell on the Edo Sports festival, Nigeria is set to open four camping sites ahead of the Tokyo Olympics billed tentatively for Fri, 23 Jul 2021 – Sun, 8 Aug 2021,baring further covid-19 harassment.
Minister of Youths and Sports Sunday Dare who made this known on Friday, gave the sites as Florida in United States where most of our foreign relay team reside, Port Harcourt Rivers State, Delta and Lagos states respectively.
He said the ministry decided to move on just few hours after the festival not only to maintain the momentum but to make for easy transition of athletes and the country to the next stage of competition. The country he further said has already flagged off 100 days count down to the Olympics.
“Edo sports festival is in the past and we have held the festival for the 48 years and we are happy that the Edo festival was a success, but we have move to the next stage of conquest which is the Olympics. We have started the 100 days countdown.
We are going to open our camps in another seven to ten days in Lagos Port Harcourt and probably in Delta and then in Florida where most of our relay teams are.
Preparation for us has been a continuum even during the covid-19 we never stopped, we provided support for most of our outlets and they are doing very well.
We are aiming to have between 60 to 70 days camping in the past we used to have 30 we want to see if we can double that and build in some competitions in between to help sharpen their legs and skills” he enthused in chat with The Nation/Sportinglife.ng Friday.
Nigeria will no doubt be looking forward to something to write home about in Tokyo after a miserable outing in 2016 in Rio. The country on that occasion paraded 71 athletes competing in various disciplines but ended up with just a Bronze.
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The only good thing about the outing was that Nigeria marked her Olympic debut in rowing, as well as its return to swimming and men’s football after an eight-year hiatus. Apart from the men’s football squad, Nigeria also returned to the Olympic scene in men’s basketball for the second consecutive time.