by crossriverwatch admin
The Cross River State Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development and leader of Team Cross River to the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos tagged “Eko 2012”, has promised that Team Cross River will do better than they did in Rivers State last year.
The Cross River State contingent to the 17th National Sports Festival tagged: Garden City Games, last year took the 15th position carting away a total of thirty six medals including seven (7) gold medals, twelve (12) silver medals and seventeen bronze medals.
In an interview with crossriverwatch in Lagos today, Mr. Patrick Ugbe said the athletes were adequately prepared. He was hopeful that the team will capitalize on sports where the state has factor advantage to improve on last year’s record.
Below is the excerpt of the interview:
CRW: What was the level of preparedness of Team Cross River before this festival and how many athletes and technical officials from Cross River State are participating in this festival and in how many events?
Ugbe: We prepared quite well. We had our athletes in camp for a period of a little over a month but before then, they were also training. We are participating in 18 sporting events. We have a team of 192 sports men and women. If you add the technical officials, we have a contingent of about 280.
CRW: With that number of contingent, are you promising the people of Cross River that you will go back with a basket full of medals?
Ugbe: Well, a basket full of medals; I do not know. But we will do better than we did in the last festival.
CRW: Are they any sports you think Cross River State has factor advantage over the other States where you can say, no matter what happens you are hopeful of getting a medal in those ones?
Ugbe: I think we will do well in athletics and we will do well in weight lifting, table tennis and we will do well in wrestling and kick boxing as well.
CRW: Are you satisfied with the level of planning and organization for the festival or are they any factors that in your opinion may affect the performance of Team Cross River?
Ugbe: So far, it’s been okay. A few short-comings but that is expected at this stage. As the festival progresses, I’m sure the organizers will correct the few lapses that are there at the moment.
CRW: Thank you for talking to us.
Ugbe: Thank you too.