Over 1,144 athletes will jostle for laurels in the maiden edition of the Bayelsa State sports festival slated to hold from March 25.
The sports festival tagged ‘Access Bank prosperity games’ which is aimed at discovering raw talents is holding from March 25 to April 1, 2023.
The Bayelsa State Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Dr Daniel Igali, told Sports journalists yesterday in Yenagoa that hosting the fiesta became necessary due to the exploits and the global attention Bayelsa has received in the last three years in sports.
He added that the positive publicity sports has rendered to Bayelsa State was as a result of the Governor’s vision for sports development.
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The Commissioner, therefore, said the 1,144 athletes comprising 592 females, 552 males would represent the Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State in 14 different sports at the one week event.
He named the 14 sporting events as athletics, boxing, canoeing, Judo, Football, Chess, Karate, table tennis, swimming taekwondo, scrabble, para-swimming, wrestling and weightlifting
Igali said athletes would arrive on March 25 with the opening ceremony holding on March 26 while the showpiece will officially kick-off on the 27th to the 30th of March with the closing ceremony on April 1.
Relationship Manager of Access Bank, Mr. Kakiri Miebi- Flint, said the event would improve the lives of the youths in the state and also bring out raw talents from the various Local Governments and communities, saying that their services are beyond mere banking.
