As the 18th edition of the National sports festival draws near, the Imo state sports council has one more declared its intention to perform excellently at the games come November.
Felchers emanating from the council indicates that the spirit is high among the athletes especially with the recent performance of the state at the just concluded festival elimination games held at Umuahia for zone two (Nguru center) were Imo emerged over – all winner.
In a chart with theActing Director of Sports Mrs Chizotam Agbomma Aretola, She disclosed that in all the sports events the state will be participating in at the Eko games including the Deaf sports and special sports, the state is expected to win medals in most of them.
Mrs Aretola who appreciated the efforts of the state athlete during the zonal play – off expressed her confidence in the state athletes to win medals at the games proper.
She however called on the athletes to continue working on their training schedule believing that with the exploits of Loveline Obiji who won Gold at the London Paralympic games will also get to her colleagues once they do well. In her own view “I have always believed that Imo state is blessed with lots of sporting talents as we have always supplied the national with our home bred talents who have gone on to shine at the international level.
“There is no doubt in my mind that if more is given to this athletes in terms of facilities and incentives, the sky will be their limit.
We will continue to do our best in putting the athletes in good shape as we have the best coaches who also played the games at the highest level to pass that winning mentality,” said Chizotam.
Imo state will be participating in about 22 sporting events at the national sports festival “Eko 12” come November.
The events are, Athletics, Badminton, Basketball (male), Boxing, Chess, Cricket (male), Cycling, Football (female), Handball (female), Hockey (female), Judo, Kick – boxing, Scrabble, Swimming, Tackwandoe, Tennis, Abula, Volleyball (male and female), Weightlifting, Deaf Sports (Athletics) and Special Sports/Para sports (Athletics, Power lifting and table Tennis)
