Akwa Ibom State will be focusing more on athletes’ discovery and future grooming at the second Niger Delta Games (NDG) holding in Benin, Edo State capital, from 20 to 27 February, according to its Commissioner for Sports, Elder Paul Bassey.
The seasons sports journalist and administrator said on Saturday that the state has registered 476 athletes and 64 coaches on its competition’s portal.
Participants’ registration closed on Friday, and the states are now to conduct trials to select the final athletes to travel to Benin for the Games.
The state Director of Coaching, Mrs. Cathrine Ewa announced that profiles of 250 male and 226 female athletes were successfully uploaded on the Games’ central registration portals alongside 44 men and 20 women coaches.
While expressing optimism on the prospects of the state’s performance in the games, Bassey insisted that the state would be prioritising discovering athletes for the future.
‘We have complied with the regulations bordering on eligibility of athletes by registering teenagers and youngsters, and for us, while it is important to win as many gold medals as possible at the games, we are also going to be placing a lot of emphasis on unearthing new talents in order to enrich our pool of sports stars for future endeavours’, he said.
Akwa Ibom hosted the maiden edition of the games in April 2025.
NDGis a brainchild of Dunamis-Icon Limited which has as its Lead Consultant, Sir Itiako Ikpokpo, who is also the Chairman of Delta State Athletics Association.
