By Akpera Nase
As the kick off date for the 2021, National Sports Festival gets closer, the spirit of Team Benue is at the low ebb, The fate of those to be selected to represent the State is still hanging,.
Investigation by The Voicesports revealed that the Management of the Benue State Sports Council emphatically informed the athletes that their participations at the 20th edition of the bi-ennial games is not going to be a jamboree.
Team Benue will be featuring in the individual games, if the submission of the Benue State Director of Sports, Comrade Philip Nongo, is to be considered.
He named some of the individual sports which include Weight lifting, Darts, Track and Fields, Karate and others. He emphasised that even among the individual games, they would be selected based on the area of strength on the level of the athletes.
The Director further informed that Benue State was unable to take part during the zonal eliminations in the team games such as Basketball, Handball, Volleyball and Football events. But assured that Benue State is eligible to compete at the festival in the individual games.
As at the time The VoiceSports visited the Benue State sports complex only few athletes were seen undergoing their trials towards perfecting their strategies ahead of the task before them.
It would be recalled that this year’s National Sports Festival was scheduled to be hosted in Benin, the Edo State capital, but was characterised by the avalanche of postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic till the recent date announced by the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare to hold between April 2nd-14th, 2021 in Benin after all the modalities have been put in place for successful hosting of the long expected sports fiesta.
