It is certainly an exciting festive season for Delta sports men and women as many of them will still be celebrating the millions of Naira gained from the 19th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Abuja.
Gaining 352 medals in all was inspired, alongside some other factors though, by a promise of N1 million by Gov. Ifeanyi Okowa for every gold medal, N500,000 for silver and N250,000 for bronze.
Definitely, it was not surprising therefore for spectators as Team Delta became the beautiful bride to behold at the Abuja National Stadium and other sports venue in Abuja between Dec. 6 and Dec. 16.
Team Delta athletes were well-kitted, looked adequately fed and had hundreds of their supporters filling up available seats in the stands with musical instruments to support them.
Speaking on the secret of the state’s success, a former Delta Commissioner for Sports, Solomon Ogba, said “sports lives in and with Deltans’’.
“The beautiful performance of Team Delta has been possible because the past governors of the state have shown great interest in sports.
“Okowa has taken it to a different level and it has gotten to a point where, if Deltans perceive that a candidate cannot continue uplifting the sports sector, that person may not get to the Government House,” he added.
Away from Delta, the 19th NSF definitely ended with many happy memories being left behind after six years of its disappearance.
The biennial event was last staged in Lagos in 2012.
The difficulty to host it, according to Solomon Dalung, the Minister of Youths and Sports Development, “denied generations of an opportunity to showcase themselves.’’
With regained excitement, elite and foreign-based athletes rose to the occasion to slug it out with youngsters in order to get to the podium.
Notably, seven-time Olympian Segun Toriola and former African champion Funke Oshonaike, amongst others, were in attendance.
A 56-year-old Taofeek Maya was also in the contest at the table tennis event and mixed feelings greeted the first open festival since its inception in 1973.
For Oshonaike and Toriola, their participation was “simply to inspire young athletes’’, but many were not convinced and said they believed it would not help to achieve the required results of discovering talents.
Amidst the strong names, young players made it tough for the old hands.
Fourty-four -year-old Oshonaike, who is aiming for a seventh appearance at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was sent packing in the quarter-finals of the women singles table tennis event by 19-year-old Nimota Aregbesola.
Same applied in para powerlifting as world champion Esther Oyema was beaten to the gold medal by 17-year-old Onyinyechi Mark.
However, Olusade Adesola, Permanent Secretary of the Sports Ministry, said the concerns regarding an open or close festival would be deliberated upon at the next National Council of Sports meeting.
More laudable was the new 59 national records set at the 19th NSF.
A 12-year-old record in women’s long jump event, earlier held by Chinedu Udozor, was broken by Ese Brume with a leap of 6.62m, compared to the former’s 6.39m.
The Abuja National Stadium was also not left out as it was adorned with beautiful sights and sounds.
Any story about that sports facility few weeks to the commencement of the NSF was obviously different from what was obtainable when the event began.
The courts, pitches, swimming pool and more appeared rejuvenated as though they were newly-built.
The voices of kids who had made the stadium a tourist site, the blasting sound of music, the dangling of medals around athletes’ necks, the noisy sounds of dishes falling on each other and teeth grinding to its delight, all were indeed awesome sights.
Vendors would certainly look forward to the next edition in Edo for another round of bountiful sales.
With around 7,227 athletes in 37 sports and 1,768 medals won in Abuja, all eyes are now on Edo 2020 with expectations of a brilliant mixture of culture with sporting spirit.(NAN)
