The Chairman of Delta state Sports Commission, Chief Tonobok Okowa has given the assurance that all the facilities and others required for the 2022 National Sports Festival in Asaba will be ready between July and August 2022, remaining upbeat that his State will host the best ever Games, Completesports.com reports.
Okowa who gave the assurance during an interview with Completesports.com in Abuja, stated that all the paperwork have almost been done, adding that all the facilities will be ready latest August 2022
“We are planning to host the best ever National Sports Festival in Asaba next year,” Okowa began. “And hopefully, we shall host and retain our title as the best in sports in the country. We have almost all the facilities and requirements in place and the few we are to build will definitely be ready between July and August next year.
“Getting everything in place, at least four months before the game in December 2022, is our target. The festival will hold in Asaba and a few neighboring towns with our stadiums and sporting facilities. Towns within 30 kilometers radius from Asaba.
“We shall use some of the hostels facilities of some higher institutions in and around Asaba for sportsmen and women during the games. Our target is not just hosting with the intention to win, but to organise a National Sports Festival that will be talked about several years after,” Okowa who had led Delta State to two back-to-back National Sports Festival victories reassured.
He continued: “We want to correct all the flaws that were noticeable during the Abuja and Benin City festivals by taking the standard to a higher level. We have the facilities to do this. We shall improve on the collation and transmission of results,
movement of athletes and officials to venues and back to hostels.”
Asked what will thrill him most with Delta State as the host of the 2022 National Sports Festival, Okowa said: “I will be happy if we host the best games and we garner an unprecedented number of gold medals. We have won 163 gold medals in each of the last two games and improving on that figures will interest me so much”.
By Richard Jideaka, Abuja
