The 19th National Sports Festival slated for 6th to 16th December 2018, gets underway in Abuja with Male and Female categories featuring for the first time in history. Other historic moments includes the official launching of the first Turf wicket pitch in Nigeria and the whole of North-West Africa.

 

After a series of eliminations from 5 Geo-political zones of the country, six (6) male and five (5) female teams qualified for the finals in Abuja.

 

QUALIFIED STATES FROM THE ZONES

  1. LAGOS (Male / Female)——-SW
  2. EDO STATE (Male / Female)–SS
  3. ANAMBRA STATE (Male)—-SE
  4. EBONYI STATE (Female)—–SE
  5. FCT (Male/Female) Host—-NC
  6. KWARA STATE (Male)——NC
  7. KADUNA STATE (Male)—NW
  8. JIGAWA STATE (Female)—NW

A technical meeting was held on 7th December between the officials and coaches/captains of the teams. Agreed format of the tournament was T-20 for both Male and Female categories. The male category was divided into 2 groups and female was a round robin with the top 2 teams to play finals and the 2nd and 3rd position to play for bronze.

 

MALE

GROUP A                                   GROUP B

LAGOS                                         KADUNA STATE

ANAMBRA STATE                    EDO STATE

KWARA STATE                          FCT

 

After 3 days of action in the Male category, Lagos and Kaduna State have both won 2 matches each toping their groups and qualified for the Semi -finals of the Festival. However, Edo State and Kwara State both lost their 2 opening games from the groups and have been sent packing from the tournament.

 

The Semi-Finals slated for Wednesday 12th December 20118, Lagos state winners of group A will play FCT runners up of group B while Kaduna State, Winners of group B will plays Anambra State runners up of group A.

 

In the Female Category, Edo State tops the table with 3 wins from 3 games beating FCT, Jigawa and Lagos States in the process. Jigawa State is 2nd, Lagos State is 3rd FCT is 4th and Ebonyi State rooted to the bottom after losing 3 games from 3 matches.

Action continues on Wednesday 12th December with the Semi-Finals of the male category and in the female category, Lagos state play Jigawa State, while FCT plays Ebonyi State.