The contingent beat the ongoing violence in the Borno State to participate in the sports festival in Lagos.
The Secretary of the Borno State Sports Council, Zubairu Umar, has said the state’s contingent defied security challenges to be at the 18th National Sports Festival, NSF, in Lagos.
Mr. Umar said in Lagos on Tuesday that the Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, was determined to ensure that the state participated fully in the festival.
According to the secretary, the governor did a lot to motivate the athletes and officials to participate in the festival.
He said security challenges made the state camp its athletes in Bauchi, Lagos, and Kaduna preparatory to the games.
He said the state was determined to improve on the medals table over its previous outing.
Borno finished 28th at the 17th edition of the games held in Port Harcourt in 2011 with one gold, three silver and eight bronze medals.
“We have 219 athletes and about 40 officials, with about 16 state delegates. Always, my goal has been to improve on our Abuja outing. That was the best ever for Borno in 2004.
“We had about eight gold medals, nine silver and 12 bronze. Our position was 16. So, we want to improve on that outing. So, we do not know what will come. So far, we have one silver, two bronze medals,” he said.
Mr. Umar urged the people of the state to have hope in the state contingent and assured that in spite of the security challenges, the athletes were determined to give a good account of themselves.
He said that the athletes and officials were eager to win more medals as the state had qualified for the semi-final and final of some events.
NAN
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