The Local Organising Committee (LOC) for Delta 2022 National Sports Festival has said that the Games will hold as scheduled.  

  The LOC statement came yesterday amid insinuations about a possible shift in date for the 21st NSF, insisting the November 28 to December 10 date remains sacrosanct. 

   “The festival will hold as planned,” Co-chairman of the LOC, Chief Tonobok Okowa, assured stakeholders yesterday in Asaba.  

  Okowa, who is the Chairman Delta Sports Commission and President Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) said that preparations for the Games, which is Nigeria’s version of the Olympic Games are on course with contractors handling the various projects working round the clock to put finishing touches to the state of the art facilities.  

  “The swimming pool is ready, and the multi-purpose indoor sports hall will be handed over to us on Saturday. The tartan track, which is the first of it’s kind in sub-Saharan Africa will equally be handed over to us on Saturday.  Those handling the last phrase of the tartan track are working in two shift, and the marking will be will be completed on Friday (today),” Okowa stated. 

   Also speaking yesterday, the Adviser to the LOC, Chief Solomon Ogba, explained that arrival of athletes and officials is November 28 and November 29, while the opening ceremony will hold on November 30. 

  Ogba revealed that 11, 000 athletes will participate at Delta 2022 National Sports festival, adding that the hostels facilities being put in place by the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa’s administration would be inherited by some of the schools.  

  Meanwhile, a team of inspectors from the Main Organising Committee (MOC) arrived the state capital yesterday for the final round of inspection of some of the facilities. 

  The team, headed by MOC Secretary, Peter Nelson, was at Issele-Uku, headquarters of Aniocha North Local Council and St Patrick’s College, Asaba, to see the hostels programmed to accommodate some of the contingents.