The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development says the 6th National Youth Games will hold between Oct. 10 and 19 at the University of Ilorin Sports Complex.

The Acting Director, Grassroots Sports Development at the ministry, Bode Durotoye, confirmed this in Ilorin on Thursday after inspecting some facilities for the games.

No fewer than 32 Directors of Sports across the country are in Ilorin for the technical meeting of the games.

Durotoye, who was impressed with the facilities on the ground, commended the authority of the institution for adding to what was on the ground before now.

“We are very pleased, everybody has commended the effort of the University for maintaining the facilities even better than the last edition,” he said.

He said the ministry was ready to put together with other games after the COVID-19 pandemic prevented the 2020 edition from holding.

Durotoye described the games as a production center where federations source for athletes to replace the aging ones.

“Some athletes discovered during previous editions of the Youth Games are on their way to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games in Japan.

“We don’t have any reason not to continue the games,” Durotoye added.

He said that the hosting of the games was a matter of interest and that anyone interested should come and study the facilities at the University of Ilorin and provide the ones that are better off.

Speaking on behalf of the university, the Director of Sports, Olufunmilola Dominic, said the school was fully ready to host the games since 2020 before COVID-19 disrupted the plans.

She explained that the institution had done some repairs on some of the facilities and even provided more where necessary.

“If you say you want to start tomorrow, we are ready, all we need to do is to just do some clearances and the game goes on.

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“We have the equipment, even they want to borrow, they can borrow from us, so, we are ever ready,” she said.

She said that the students would be on the first semester holiday when the games would commence.

Delta emerged champions of the 5th edition of the games with 41 gold, 32 silver, and 31 bronze medals making it the 5th time the team won the fiesta.

Team Lagos, who made their second appearance at the edition after debuting in 2018, finished second with 22 gold, 36 silver, and 14 bronze medals.

The third position was claimed by Team Bayelsa with 17 gold, 6 silver, and 22 bronze medals.