The Minister of Youths and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has revealed that non-contact athletes are soon to resume their training in Port Harcourt, Rivers, ahead of Tokyo Olympics.

The revelation was made by the minister’s Special Adviser on Media, John Joshua-Akanji today in Abuja where he listed the non-contact sports to include lawn tennis, table tennis, squash, badminton, cycling, athletics, golf, polo, para-athletics and cricket among others.

He said the proactive move is being undertaken with regards to the announcement by the Federal Government that non-contact sports could resume across the country with strict compliance to COVID-19 protocols. In his words, he said, “The minister has directed that in the next few weeks, about 20 athletes will resume training at the HPC in Port Harcourt. This is to kick-start Nigeria’s resumption of sports and also a way of resuming skeletal training for the Tokyo Olympic Games because we don’t want the athletes to get rusty.

Akanji assured that lots of things are being put in place as the body is gradually setting things up as it is avoiding the rush in order to ensure care and caution are well taken.

The Tokyo Olympics, originally scheduled to hold from July 24 to August 9, 2020 was postponed to the summer of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The minister’s aide is however optimistic that Nigeria would perform well at the Olympics and all other international competitions with the measures being put in place.

Meanwhile, he spoke on the use of public sporting facilities and stadia for athletes training, saying that the facilities would soon be opened after all health protocols might have been put in place.