Habu Gumel, President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), has urged the country’s sports federations to ramp up preparations for the three major games that Nigeria will be attending this year.
According to media reports, one of the three major Games will be the African Games, which will be held in Ghana.
The Africa Beach Games will be held in Hammamet, Tunisia, and the World Beach Games will be held in Bali, Indonesia.
The Africa Beach Games will be used to qualify athletes for the Bali Games.
Tony Nezianya, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of NOC, in a statement on Friday quoted Gumel as saying Nigeria should be adequately represented with victory in mind.
Gumel added that this was important since the Games had been approved by the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development.
”The Ministry has approved Nigeria’s participation in those Games and has sought the assistance of the NOC to accredit athletes and officials for those events.
”We need to prepare well to win gold since our last gold medal was at the 1996 Atlanta Games,” he said.
The NOC President also said the African Games scheduled for Ghana from Aug. 4 to Aug. 14, 2023, was still within the cards.
He added that a more acceptable date would be decided within the next couple of weeks.
“The African Union (AU) has set a committee to fix actual dates. When this is done, there will be an announcement to that effect.
“The Games are important because they will be an Olympic qualifier for most events in the Olympic Games.”
