COVID-19: Ministry in continuous engagement with athletes – Dare

Despite the postponement of the National Sports Festival and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to  the outbreak of Coronavirus, the Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr. Sunday Dare has revealed that the Ministry is very much in touch with each of the athletes.

He disclosed this in an interview after the inspection of facilities being made available for use as distribution centres to curb the spread of the virus at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.

The Minister said, “The Nigerian authority through the Sports Ministry called off the National Sports Festival. Several of our athletes overseas could not practice again because the sporting facilities were shut down. What we have done as a Ministry and as a country is to be in touch with each one of them because we have a database, to know what their plans are, to know what support they it need.

“The Adopt an Athlete plan that we have, the funds are going to them so we  are happy that those funds can help them at this period when some of them cannot make money from competitions. They are free  to leverage on that, they can also look for indoor facilities where they can practice, they can pay to use those facilities so, there’s a continuous engagement with our athletes.”

The  Minister added that the country would stick to 11 Sports as earlier agreed and that funds have been released for pending qualifiers which those athletes can go for as soon as the spread of virus is stemmed. He urged the athletes to continue to practice even as the Ministry continues to plan and strategise.

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