5th July, 2011
The Festival Torch that began a tour around the country 10 months ago in Port Harcourt failed to light up the Liberation Stadium to declare the Games open as it has been the tradition of such championship around the world, including the Olympic Games.
After a sublime opening ceremony, perhaps the best in the history of Nigerian Sports Festival, the final moment that all the athletes, officials and dignitaries were waiting for didn’t come to reality, as the festival torch that was passed on from one former Rivers State’s athlete to another and ended up with Otorie Tamuna Oworima, a long jump athlete, failed to light.
Oworima took the torch and headed for a crane that would take her to where the torch stand stood, but on climbing the crane, she found out that the crane was not working.
She stood on the crane for over 30 minutes waiting for the crane to transport her to where she would light the torch but it failed to work.