By Eche Amos

Following Thursday’s screening of athletes, attention will now shift towards the commencement of hostilities on Friday as the curtains for the 6th National Youth Games holding at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, will be drawn open.

Team Nasarawa who are already on ground at the host city, are looking poised to scoop medals in the sports they will be featuring in when actions commence.

Though initially billed for Tuesday, the Opening Ceremony was delayed till Thursday after organizers and the host institution made some slight adjustments to the timeline of the Games, but Team Nasarawa are not deterred by this, with the athletes and coaches enthusiastically saying “we are at the Youth Games to win medals, irrespective of any outcome”.

A contingent of 126 members left Lafia, the Nasarawa State Capital, on Tuesday, 12th October, 2021, made up of sixty-five Athletes, fifteen Technical Officials, fifteen Sports Associations’ Secretaries, and thirty-one Accompanying Officials some of whom include Directors, Medical Personnel, Security Personnel, Journalists, House Keepers, and Umpires.

Team Nasarawa will participate in fourteen out of the thirty-seven registered sporting events which are Athletics, Ayo, Boxing, Darts, Hockey(Boys), Judo, Karate, Kokuwa, Kung-Fu Wushu, Scrabble, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, and Weightlifting.

According to the Director of Grassroots Sports Development of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, Alhaji Bode Durotoye, about five thousand participants made up of over three thousand athletes, 431 coaches, 555 delegates and 167 accompanying officials drawn from the 36 States of the Federation, and F.C.T., Abuja, will be partaking in this year’s Games which runs from 10th to 19th October.

It’s the fifth time the National Youth Games, which is a national multi-sport event for young persons below the age of fifteen, will be hosted at the University of Ilorin, Kwara State, after the FCT, Abuja, hosted the maiden edition in 2013.