A total of 325 athletes are expected for the 2022 Centre for Degree Programmes Sport Festival (CESPORF) organised by the Education Students Association of Nigeria, Federal College of Education, Abeokuta in affiliation with the University of Ibadan (ESAN UI-FCEABK).
The organisers also revealed that a total of 17 sports including football, table tennis, long jump, athletics, draughts etc. will take place during the festival.
This revealed in a press statement by the festival’s Media Officer, Olamide Abe, after the organisers’ closed-door meeting with former CAF African Coach of the Year, Khadiri Ikhana and Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Ogun Chairman, Akeem Akintunde.
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Abe, in the statement, also noted that the festival has secured a media partnership with SWAN and the Ogun State Television (OGTV).
He also noted that Akintunde, a veteran sport broadcaster with OGTV pledged to feature the festival’s activities on the station and bring in SWAN-accredited sport journalists to boost the festival’s visibility.
Ikhana appreciated the organisers aim of taking sports beyond the four walls of the school and urged them to engage more stakeholders in promoting the image of the school.
The 10-day-long festival will hold between March 9 and March 14, 2022 while winners will be awarded during the ESAN Gala and Award Night scheduled for Wednesday, March 23, 2022.
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The competition, according to the statement, started in 2013 as a development and training event to help students prepare for inter-varsity and national meets.
ESAN Director of Sports, Samuel Ariyibi, noted that this unique festival is “an urgent need to build a platform that shall provide the training ground for young sports men and women that can also serve as a nursery for our national teams.”