Poor Organisation Mars National School Sports Festival In Rivers

The 5th National School Sports Festival holding in Port Harcourt has been marred by poor organisation from the Local Organisation Committee (LOC).

  It was clear from Monday that the games would be well organised as it took drastic stance from the NSSF before the host - Rivers registered its athletes for the championship.
  At some point most of the participating states threatened to pull out of the competition over the attitude of Rivers.

  Six days after arriving for the tournament, the screening of athletes was not conclude until Tuesday, which prevented the commencement of most of the events.

  Also the distance of most venues made it difficult for states to arrive early for most of the events and this situation also incensed some of the states to fault the organisation.

  "I think Rivers has not done a good job in hosting the competition because they delayed the tournament by not registering their athletes on time for the games. Most states that travelled from far arrived in Port Harcourt but they did not take part in any competition until seven days after.

This is not good for the athletes and I think this should be looked into," an official who pleaded anonymity said.

  The official however, blamed the LOC saying NSSF tried to make things work well but the LOC are not just ready for the games.

  As at yesterday only six events have been submitted with Lagos topping with 13gold, 12silver and 8bronze medals.

  Rivers is second with 12gold, 11 silver and 10bronze medals, while defending champion, Cross River is third with 10gold, 12silver and four bronze medals.

Delta is fourth with eight gold, four silver and four bronze medals, while Ogun is fifth with five gold, two silver and 12 bronze medals.

  The events that produced the above medals are march past, boxing, basketball, handball, karate, scrabble and volleyball.

  Medals are still be expected today in 12 events with 24 states hoping for more medals in these events.

  The 10-day tournament ends today with the closing ceremony holding at Liberation Stadium.