No fewer than 21 states of the federation have indicated interest to participate in the Rivers State sponsored National Cycling Road Championship holding in Port Harcourt on Sunday.
Technical director of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria (CFN), Bashir Mohammed who disclosed this yesterday said all participating states are allowed six cyclists per category in the one-day championship which will start and finish in front of the Government House in Port Harcourt.
The states are Oyo, Delta, Edo, Kaduna, Niger, Kwara, Ogun, Enugu, Bayelsa, Nasarawa and Imo. Others include Lagos, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Gombe, Adamawa, Ondo, Osun, Ekiti, Kano and host State, Rivers.
All the cyclists and officials will be provided with accommodation and feeding, the Technical Director added.
“Each State is allowed to register at most six cyclists for each of the four categories to be compete for,”, Mohammed said, adding, “if a State is participating in the four categories, that means it will have 24 cyclists in all”.
The categories are Men Elite who are expected to ride 132km, Women Elite and Men Junior who will both ride 88km as well as Women Junior who are to ride 44km within the Port Harcourt metropolis.
For the prize money, President of the CFN, Engr. Giadomenico Masari had earlier disclosed that the first finishers in both the Elite Men and Women will pocket N600,000 each while their counterparts in the Men and Women Juniors will earn N300,000 each. There are also consolation prizes for other riders.
