Up to 130 athletes are taking part at the ongoing 8th edition of Admiral Porbeni National Boat Race at the Jabi Lake Abuja.
The duo of Team Nigeria’s canoeing Representatives Ayomide Bello and Esther Toko at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and other athletes chasing for medals and the star prize during three-day event.
President of Nigeria Rowing, Canoe and Sailing Federation (NRCSF), Admiral FBI Porbeni who is the sponsor of the event said a total of 13 states including host FCT, Ondo, Kogi, Rivers, Delta, Borno, Bayelsa, Oyo, Kaduna, Kwara, Bauchi and Niger as well as independent athletes will compete for medals in 15 events in both able and para categories.
He said the competition designed to discover and nurture young talents them to stardom was also aimed at propagating the three water sports – rowing, canoe and sailing toward helping the Federation achieve its core mandate of developing and popularising water sports in the country.
“The Almirante Porbeni National Boat Race is essentially a talent search and discovery competition whose goal is to ‘catch them young.
“We will also nurture them to stardom and prominence by exposing them to international competitions,” he said.
Porbeni also revealed that the NRCSF is working tirelessly to improve on the technical and organisational efficiency of the championship to attract support from the International Canoe Federation (ICF) and International Rowing Federation (FISA), saying this will authenticate new records set, created or broken by the athletes in the competition.
He showered encomiums on Nigerian sensation and Olympian, Ayomide Emmanuel Bello, who broke her own record of 50.00 seconds in the 200m women event at the Morocco 2019 Africa Games when she returned a faster time of 42.90 seconds in the same event at the 2021 Admiral Porbeni National Boat Race.
He also announced that following the success of the competition, ICF has offered to support Nigeria to host the first edition of West Africa Para Canoeing and Rowing Championship at the Jabi Lake, Abuja immediately after the Admiral Porbeni National Boat Race.
He said the NCRSF was determined to continue to do more to raise the standard of the competition, but for low funding.
The Federation President called on corporate bodies and well-meaning Nigerians to support the Federation financially, saying the government alone cannot fund sports to the height Nigerians all desire.
The gold medalist will go home with N100,000, Silver 70,000 and Bronze 50,000 in the three-day competition.
Blueprint reports that events are expected to end on Saturday with the departure of participating athletes.
