President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) Habu Ahmed Gumel has reminded National Sports Federations to step up preparations for three major games that Nigeria would attend in 2023.
A statement by the NOC spokesman Tony Nezianya on Friday February 24 revealed that the top two are the Africa Games to be staged by Ghana and the Africa Beach Games to be hosted in Hammamet, Tunisia.
According to him, the third would be the World Beach Games scheduled to hold in Bali, Indonesia.
He said the Tunis Beach Games would serve as a qualification event for the Bali Games.
In the statement the NOC Public Relations Officer quoted Gumel as saying that since the Games had been approved by the sports ministry, it meant Nigeria should be adequately represented with victory in mind.
”The Ministry of sports has approved the participation of the country in those Games and has sought the assistance of the NOC to accredit athletes and officials for those events.
”We need to prepare well to win Gold since our last Gold medal was at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
“Ghana Africa Games is still within the cards as a more acceptable date would be decided within the next couple of weeks.
“The AU has set a committee to fix actual dates. When this is done, there will be an announcement to that effect. Earlier dates were to run from August 4 to August 14, 2023,
“The Games are important because they will be an Olympic qualifier for most events in the Olympic Games,” the statement said.
