Date: 2020-01-31

Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara and the Minister for Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, are expected to declare the 7th Kwara Sports Festival closed on Saturday.

The state Director of Sports, Malam Tunde Kazeem, disclosed this in an interview with the Nigeria News Agency on Thursday in Ilorin.

NAN recalls that athletes from the 16 local government areas of the state are competing in 26 sporting events to revive the festival that has been abandoned for 15 years.

Kazeem, who said he is pleased with the standard of the games, explained that many of the athletes may not make it to Edo 2020, but plenty of them have been discovered for the future.

"I am very pleased with what I have seen so far. I can boast that we will produce athletes for the future from the games.

'We have seen a lot of athletes that we least expected, but this was possible because of the Touch of Unity that went round the local governments; we received royal blessings from the traditional rulers.

"This is a huge avenue for talents to be discovered, I saw a table tennis match yesterday and you can't get anything short of that even at the national," Kazeem said.

He said that the events may not be 100 per cent perfect, but with what we have seen, it is a good omen for sports development in Kwara.

Kazeem revealed that he has gone round to see how the athletes are fairing and he discovered that many of them are coming to the state capital, Ilorin, for the first time.

"Many of these young athletes are just been exposed to these facilities and the excitement on their faces is huge," said the director.