Rugby returns to Nigeria national sports festival

Rugby returns to Nigerian sports festival

JOHANNESBURG, April 16 (ANA) – Rugby made a timely return to the National Sports Festival (NSF) after a 10-year absence in Benin City this week.

The NSF is a biennial multi-sport event organised by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the National Sports Commission for athletes from the 36 States of Nigeria.

Rugby last featured as a medal winning event in Kaduna 2009 having debuted at the 2006 Gateway games in Ogun State. Prior to that, Rugby went through a mandatory demonstration in three consequent events.

Kano men’s team won the sevens gold medal at the Adolor College, venue of NSF Rugby having defeated all their opponents except for Team Edo who forced Kano to a 12-12 scoreline.

Delta recovered to pick up top spot in the 10s event while Edo State team’s pack proved too strong in the 15s event which secured gold for the host team.

In the women’s competition, Edo State and Delta went toe-to-toe in all three events as team Edo emerged with gold medals in sevens and 15s leaving Delta with the gold medal in the 10s event.

The National Sports Festival was postponed twice in 2020 as a precautionary measure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nigeria has recently come down after the second wave of infections in the country. On January 30 Nigeria reached an all-time high 25 567 active infections, but as of April 15 that number stood at 7 734. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman