7th KWASFEST: Athletes lament poor coordination, welfare, kits

Some Athletes at the ongoing 7th Kwara State Sports Festival on Tuesday decried the poor coordination, welfare and quality of kits provided for the event.
Some of the athletes told the News Agency of Nigeria in Ilorin that they were not happy as they were not getting what they expected at the event.
The athletes said they were only persevering because of their love for the sports they were participating in.
Benjamin Adeyemi, a Handball player from Isin Local Government Area, said the festival was organised like an amateur event.
Adeyemi said: “The festival is so poor, the arrangement looks as if it is an amateur programme.
“Whosoever is in charge of welfare didn’t do a good job because we are being treated as if we are secondary school students.
“For breakfast, we are being given N30 bread with coloured water as tea and boiled eggs.
“The kits are also nothing to write home about as we were given polo shirts as jerseys, which is also of very low quality and they are not even enough.”
Toyin Adewumi from Ekiti Local Government Area said “the welfare is not encouraging at all”.
ADewumi added: “We are just persevering because of our love for sports.
“May be in the subsequent editions, they can improve, but for now, this is not good at all.”
Adijat Mohammed, who plays volleyball for Oyun Local Government Area, claimed the last meal they were served was lunch on Monday.
Mohammed said: “We were given rice yesterday afternoon which also served as our dinner.
“We had to use our money to eat dinner and this morning we were not given breakfast.
“We resorted to drink Garri before our match starts.”
Another athlete from Oyun Local Government Area, Seliat Mohammed, also said it was unfortunate that the festival was revived for athletes to suffer.
Reacting to the complaints, the State Director of Sports, Tunde Kazeem, said the various local government councils were responsible for provision of kits, feeding and allowances and not the state.
Kazeem explained that the Main Organising Committee was only responsible for accommodation, security and other logistics of the host community.
He assured that the N500 daily allowances for athletes would be paid on the last day of the programme.
NAN reports that the 7th edition of the festival, which opened on January 25, is expected to end on Saturday.
Athletes from 16 local government areas of the state are featuring in 26 events.
NAN.