A contingent of 276 athletes and officials will represent Kano State in a total of 22 events at the forthcoming 2020 National Sports Festival in Benin City.
The 20th edition of the sports festival which suffered several postponements is scheduled to hold from 2-14 April with 36 states and the Federal capital territory, FCT, expected to be in attendance.
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The Chairman of Kano State Sports Commission, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima who spoke to journalists yesterday said “We are rounding up preparations for the sports festival. Some of the athletes are outside Kano for training because of the lack of facilities in events like swimming, gymnastics, cycling. Such athletes are training in Lagos and other parts of the country.
“However, on March 29, all the athletes will return to kano for COVID-19 tests and vaccination as directed.
“The vaccinations is to be had 12 days before arrival so we have been taking it since two days back. I had my own jab on Tuesday. We are doing it in batches to complete it in time,” he said.
He also disclosed that Kano State has qualified to represent the North-West in five of the six team events namely football (male and female), handball, volleyball and rugby.
Galadima added that unlike in the past where two teams represented the zones in team events, it has been cut down to only one representative in view of the existence of COVID-19 pandemic.
As way of motivating the athletes for podium finish, he said the state government has promised to maintain the tradition of giving out the sum of N500,000 for gold, N300,00 for silver while Bronze medallists will go home with N200,000 each.
Galadima, therefore, thanked government for providing the necessary funds despite the dwindling economic situation to enable the state participate in the National Sports Festival.
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