NRFF set Senegal 2022 Youth Olympics target

Nigeria Rugby football Federation (NRFF) is dreaming of assembling a formidable team that can qualify for the 2022 Youth Olympic Games billed to hold in Senegal.

Senegal became the first country in Africa to get the nod to host an international world sports event like the Olympics following the announcement yesterday by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the West African country has won the right to organise the fourth summer Youth Olympics.

The Nigeria rugby board which congratulated Senegal for getting the hosting right, said all hands are on deck to assemble a strong team that would pick the Africa ticket to participate in the rugby sevens event, which debuted at 2014 games in Nanjing.

Rugby sport is among the 32 sports at the 2018 Youth Olympics holding in Argentina.

Nigeria’s technical director, Williams Ntiense said the NRFF was poised to revamp rugby in the country, adding that the body would not relent in getting more youths to take to the game.

“Nigeria will surely send a team to the 2022 Youth Olympics to participate in rugby event if we qualified from the Africa process of selection.

“The NRFF is working hard to build a solid team from all levels to represent the country well in international engagements.

The Black Stallions was not listed for the 2018 Africa Rugby championship, which will take place in Tunisia because of the sanction placed on the board in 2017.

All the process for the countries that would take part in the event was done in 2017,’’ he said.