Plans are underway for the second to the fourth National Youth Games to be hosted in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, LOC for the first edition which ended in Abuja last week, Al-Hassan Yakmut said that the proposal has been made to the National Sports Commission, NSC for approval.
Yakmut said the plan becomes necessary to enable us solidify the Youth Games before moving it to states for hosting.
‘’Abuja will host the next edition and this is because we want to block all the leakages and problems encountered in the first edition. The first edition was very successful, but we want to ensure that the Youth games is solidified before we call on states to host,’’
However, over 300 talented under-17 athletes were discovered during the Games and Yakmut disclosed that the athletes will be handed over to the national high performance center for proper training.
‘’The discovered athletes would have to pass another screening before making it to the High Performance Centre. We are going to do this to ensure that only the right people that are young make it to the high performance center. If you are saying that we should develop the young ones for the future, then, you must actually deal with the young ones.
If you are dealing with somebody that is old, it means you are wasting your time. So, if we have young ones that are 14, 15, 16 year-old and you look at their physique, you will know that they are future athletes.
The High Performance Centre is expected to be commissioned in January 2014.