PORT HARCOURT/Nigeria: Organizers of the maiden Niger Delta Sports Festival (NDSF) have announced a slight adjustment to the pre-festival schedule, extending the registration deadline from February 28 to March 7, 2025.
The decision was revealed during Tuesday’s daily briefing by the Co-Chairman of the Technical Committee, Enefiok Udo-Obong, who attributed the extension to a surge in requests from states affected by the zonal qualifiers for the National Sports Festival (NSF).
“Due to the request of a lot of States and the participation of States at the zonal eliminations for NSF, we have decided to make some changes to our calendar. Registration will now be extended by a week and will close on March 7, 2025,” Udo-Obong stated.
As a result, the timeline for Local Government and Constituency trials has also been adjusted. Udo-Obong informed members of the State Liaison Committees that a list of registered participants and their respective sports would be provided by March 9. The Federal Constituency and Local Government trials are now scheduled to take place between March 11 and 15.
Despite the adjustments, Udo-Obong assured NDSF Media that the festival’s overall schedule remains intact. “We are still within our schedule to start the trials and open the festival on April 1, 2025,” he stated.
The NDSF, an initiative of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), is the first sports-related intervention project by the commission and coincides with its 25th anniversary. Themed “Beyond Oil: Harnessing Talents,” the event will feature over 3,000 athletes competing for medals in 17 sports across the nine NDDC mandate states.
