With barely five days to the start of the World Fencing Tournament billed for Lagos Continental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, Angola, Ghana, Togo and Benin have registered for the point-earning event.
The Nigeria Fencing Federation (Nigerian Fencing) President Adeyinka Samuel disclosed at the weekend that Nigeria is set to organise a flawless competition to enhance its reputation as one of the countries where the sport has kept developing in the past few years.
Samuel, though lamented the low turnout of countries which he blamed on the fact that the new fencing season has just began which led to many countries being laid back in registering.
“We have put in a lot of efforts to get to this stage, its just unfortunate that we are getting far less of what we had expected regarding the countries that have entered for the tournament.
“This is our very first time we would be hosting a world tournament at senior level and our expectations were very high and that is why we have partnered with a top hotel; we are equally giving out a prize money of $5,000 which is the first of it’s kind and a very good incentive.
He said Togo and Angola are scheduled to come with six-man delegation of four athletes, coach and federation president while Ghana and Benin are each billed to come with three fencers, a coach and federation head.
“Finally, we would like to say a special thank you to one of our partners “Taptap Send” for starting this journey with us. Taptap Send is a leading international remittance organization that allows people send money back home to Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean quickly, and at a very low cost.”
