by Kazeem Busari
Organisers
of the 2014 Special Olympics Nigeria National Games have said the event
will hold from August 10 to 13 at the University of Lagos and will
feature 140 athletes.
The games are for intellectually
challenged athletes and will feature seven sports – athletics, aquatics,
badminton, basketball, cycling (demonstrative), table tennis and
unified football.
The athletes were selected after two
regional games held in Ijebu Ode and Enugu last year and six other state
competitions in the North Central and South-South regions of the
country.
The organisers said on Thursday in Lagos
that 42 athletes would be randomly selected after the National Games to
represent Nigeria at the 2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Los
Angeles , California .
“We intend to present a delegation of 56
that will include 12 coaches and two other officials at the world
games,” a board member of Special Olympics Nigeria, Udeme Ufot, said.
This would be the third edition of the
Special Olympics Nigeria National Games since the inception of the body.
The first games were in 2006 and the second held in 2010.
“Special Olympics Unified Sports is a
programme that brings together equal numbers of athletes with
intellectual disabilities and their peers without intellectual
disabilities on the same team for training and competition. A primary
goal of Unified Sports is to provide another level of challenge for
higher ability athletes and promote equality and inclusion through the
medium of sports,” Ufot added.
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