The National Sports Commission, NSC, has cautioned that registered athletes with antidoping issues cannot compete for scoring medals at the ongoing National Sports Festival, tagged Gateway Games 2024.

The NSC made it clear after a strategic joint meeting of the Main Organising Committee and the Local Organising Committee of the Games on Monday.

The commission announced that this is in line with global best practices and the World antidoping Agency ( WADA) code.

NSC DG Hon Bukola Olopade charged all the participating states to take note of this and reiterates the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that every athlete compete very clean.

” The issue of antidoping is one important mandate of the Commission to ensure that Nigeria is devoid of drugs problems at both domestic and international competitions. 

” We are happy now that the National antidoping law has finally been passed by our Sports loving President, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and the ripple effect of such a landmark fear must swiftly be felt in our Sports starting with the current Sports Festival”, he stated.

The following athletes have therefore been listed to have doping issues and cannot compete for medals at the Games.

1. Marcus Okon representing Akwa Ibom state in Para Athletics 

2. Ayabeke David Opeyemi representing Bayelsa state in Gymnastics 

3. Kareem Shukurat representing Lagos state in kickboxing 

4. Omole Dolapo Joshua representing Bayelsa state in kickboxing 

5. Ogunsemilore Cynthia representing Bayelsa state in kickboxing 

6. Animashaun Sofia representing Lagos state in Para powerlifting

Reigning champions, Team Delta, have wasted no time in asserting their dominance at the 2024 National Sports Festival in Abeokuta, Ogun State, surging to the top of the medals table as their quest for a fifth consecutive title gets underway.

After just two days of competition, Delta climbed past early leaders, Team Cross River, with a tally of three gold and one silver medal. The early haul was spearheaded by Confidence Onyema, who secured two golds in Kung Fu, while Favour Mike and Edirin Agha contributed a gold and a silver in weightlifting, respectively.

Team Cross River, briefly perched at the summit, now trail in second place with three gold medals – all courtesy of Kalu Ufiem, who dominated the 55kg weightlifting category with a lift of 94kg, securing a clean sweep.

The festival officially kicked off with an opening ceremony on Sunday at the MKO Abiola International Stadium, but the action began in earnest earlier at the NYSC Orientation Camp in Sagamu, where weightlifting quickly emerged as the medal-rich sport of the opening days.

The Invited Junior Athletes, a new and exciting addition to the festival, have made an immediate impact. They sit third on the table with two gold, one silver, and two bronze medals – a strong showing driven by Amarachi Chijioke’s pair of golds in weightlifting.

Meanwhile, Team Lagos sits in fourth place after Ronke Olarinoye clinched the first gold of the 2024 NSF in the women’s 45kg weightlifting category. Lagos follows with one gold and one bronze.

Teams Bayelsa and Rivers are tied in fifth position with two silver and one bronze each, while Team Oyo holds seventh with one silver and one bronze. Team Ekiti rounds out the table after collecting a single bronze medal during Monday’s weightlifting contests.

Over 15,000 athletes are competing across individual and team events, with 2,150 medals to be won in 549 events—making this edition one of the largest and most competitive in the festival’s history. The medal pool includes 626 gold, 626 silver, and 898 bronze medals.

One of the standout innovations of the 2024 NSF is the Invited Junior Athletes category, a move designed to integrate emerging talent with established competitors. This inclusion not only raises the competition’s profile but also provides young athletes a critical platform to shine nationally.

This marks the second time Ogun State is hosting the National Sports Festival, having first done so in 2006. With just a few days gone, the stage is set for another fiercely contested edition of Nigeria’s very own Olympic Games.

Nigeria’s Quadri Aruna and Egypt’s Hana Goda have kept Africa’s hopes alive at the 2025 ITTF World Championships in Doha, Qatar, as they advanced to the third round of the singles events in impressive fashion on Monday

Amid a wave of African exits on day three of the championships, Aruna showed composure and class to overcome Norway’s Borgar Haug 4-2 in a gripping men’s singles contest at Qatar University.

The Nigerian, Africa’s top-ranked player, was forced to dig deep against Haug, whose lower world ranking belied a spirited performance.

Aruna took the opening set 11-7, but the Norwegian responded with a dominant 11-3 win in the second. The match turned into a thrilling back-and-forth encounter, with Aruna winning the third set 11-8, Haug levelling again in the fourth, and the Nigerian regaining the edge 11-7 in the fifth.

The decisive sixth set was the match’s climax. Aruna led 9-7, but Haug rallied to level at 9-9. Aruna edged ahead 10-9, but the Norwegian equalised once more.

Drawing on his vast experience, Aruna held firm to claim the next two points, sealing the set 12-10 and the match 4-2 to become the last African male standing in the singles draw after Egypt’s Omar Assar narrowly lost to Portugal’s Marcos Freitas in a tight 4-3 battle (11-6, 8-11, 12-10, 3-11, 8-11, 11-8, 10-12), to bow out in the second round.

His next opponent is Germany’s Benedikt Duda, a familiar face on the professional circuit, as he continues his charge towards a historic podium finish in Doha.

In the women’s singles, African champion Hana Goda delivered a commanding 4-1 victory over Brazil’s Giulia Takahashi to reach the third round.

The 16-year-old, who exited in the second round in Durban in 2023, dropped the first set 9-11 but responded with four consecutive wins (11-4, 11-5, 11-7, 11-7) to wrap up the match in style.

Aside from a brief slip in the fourth set, where she trailed twice, Goda dominated proceedings with precision shot selection and tactical variety that overwhelmed her South American opponent.

Her next challenge, however, is a daunting one — a third-round clash against tournament fourth seed Wang Yidi of China.

Goda is now the only African woman remaining in the singles event, after Madagascar’s Hanitra Raharimanana fell to Germany’s Sabine Winter in straight sets (11-2, 11-8, 11-2, 11-4) earlier in the day.

In the Mixed Doubles event, Nigeria’s Olajide Omotayo and Kabirat Ayoola exited in the second round following defeat to their South Korean opponents. However, there was success for Egypt’s Youssef Abdelaziz and Mariam Alhodaby, who progressed to the third round after a 3-1 victory over their Italian counterparts.