No fewer than 6,000 athletes from the 36 states including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) will be competing at the 2019 National Youth Games (NYG).
The 5th edition of the annual games which is scheduled to run from Saturday, September 7 to Tuesday, September 17, 2019, in Ilorin, Kwara, would showcase the registered athletes competing in 34 sporting events.
According to the Secretary Main Organizing Committee (MOC) for games, Emmanuel Okere, who spoke to newsmen in Abuja, said the committee is ready to host a successful event, adding that it will provide an opportunity for Nigeria to discover and groom its next crop of Olympics medalist.
“We are going to involve entertainment during the opening ceremony which goes in line with our mission to combine education, culture and sports together,” he said.
“The youth games age bracket has been changed from the 17 to 15 and we will be looking at vibrant youths coming to show their talents in different fields as we seek to groom next crop of Olympic medalist for the country.”
“We have also increased the number of sports from 25 to 34, we are also going to have large athletes this time because, after our delegation meeting held September 1, we discovered that 6000 athletes have registered for the games”.
