As the 19th National Sports Festival ends in Abuja this weekend, here is the highs and lows of the 10-day sports fiesta…
After a six-year hiatus, the National Sports Festival returned amidst mixed reactions from states and athletes. Despite a late release of funds, the competition began in various centres across Abuja, with the opening ceremony at the National Stadium, Abuja, on December 6.
With over 8,000 athletes and officials from over 35 states – Ebonyi are absent– participating in 37 sports in the last 10 days, defending champions Delta States emerged run-away winners early on at the event.
Below are some of the issues and performances that highlighted the festival, popularly called Nigeria’s Olympics:
Poor facilities
The sporting events took place in different centres across the nation’s capital city – football took place at FIFA Goal Project, basketball was played at the National Stadium, swimming at the Jabi Lake Resort, among others.
Repair works were rushed on some parts of the National Stadium a few days to the start of the festival. The tracks, which needed to be replaced, were patched up, resulting in poor running times by the athletes. Also, there were several complaints of poor lighting in the halls, where table tennis and scrabble took place. There was also a reported power outage in one of the finals of the athletics events on Wednesday evening, which affected the accuracy of the time athletes finished.
Apart from the privately-managed Jabi Lake Resort, most of the other facilities were not ready on time for the events. Events, which were scheduled to start on December 7, were postponed as the venues were not ready for them. It was learnt that the basketball courts were repainted a few hours to the start of the competition – same for the handball courts.
Logistics issues
Several athletes and officials complained about the accommodation and transportation arrangements at the festival. Athletes and officials claimed they were often stranded after competing at the venues as there were inadequate buses to transport them between the venues and their camps.
Also, stories of athletes’ camp not in good conditions also emerged in the early days of the competition, with the competitors lamenting how they shared small beds in the camp. The conditions however improved as more beds were provided.
States unprepared
Several states at the Games were unprepared for the competition as evident by the performance of the athletes. The athletes had endured torrid preparations for the festival and went on to compete despite their lack of preparedness. Many states arrived on the second and third days of the festival as they were delayed due to various reasons.
Apart from Delta State, who motivated their athletes with an announcement of monetary rewards or N1m for each gold medalist, N500,000 for silver medalists and N250,000 for bronze winners, some athletes are in the dark over what they would be paid after the festival.
Athletes from Bayelsa, Imo and the FCT allegedly lived like beggars at the festival as they were reportedly not properly taken care of by their officials. The athletes on different days protested their neglect by the officials and threatened to quit the festival if nothing was done. The Bayelsa athletes were also reported to have borrowed kits for use from other states for their events.
Dominant Delta
Making sure they defended the crown they won at Eko 2012 in Lagos, Delta announced a robust reward package for their athletes and ensured they added a host of elite athletes to their team. Especially in athletics, where they also dominated, Delta had African champions Ese Brume (women’s long jump), Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (men’s shot put) and Tobi Amusan (women’s 100m hurdles) in their team. They also had former British high jumper Mike Edwards, who switched allegiance to Nigeria and competed at the 2018 Senior African Athletics Championships in Asaba. However, Blessing Okagbare, who was previously scheduled to compete for the state, later dropped out.
Akwa Ibom also employed veteran table tennis stars Segun Toriola and Funke Oshonaike for the festival. But while Toriola went on to win gold in the men’s singles, Oshonaike crashed out in the quarter-final of the women’s singles – leaving empty-handed.
New stars emerge
Despite the lows at the festival, there are a few stars, who shone at the Games. Six-year-old Deborah Quickpen, who was the youngest athlete in Abuja, played chess for Bayelsa State. Imabong Nse, a 14-year-old product of Akwa Ibom State’s youth programme, put up a sensational display to win gold in the women’s 400m event on Thursday.
Sixteen-year-old judoka Adijat Azeez from Ondo State also defeated two former national champions Blessing Obaraje of Edo and Esther Augustine of Delta to emerge the 70kg champion.
Giant-killers/flops
Lagos youngster Nimota Aregbesola recorded the biggest upset at the festival after she defeated Oshonaike 4-3 in the quarter-finals of the women’s singles of the table tennis event. Fifty-six-year-old Taofeek Maya, the oldest player at the Games, and Funmi Ajala created another upset in the mixed doubles when they beat Oshonaike and Toriola 4-3 in the last eight.
In athletics, little-known Bukola Bolutife of Ondo State won gold in the women’s 100m ahead of favourites Peace Uko of Anambra and Joy Udo-Gabriel of Delta.
Deltans smash records
Delta athletes would be remembered for smashing several records in Abuja.
African champion Ese Brume (Delta) set a new record of 6.62m in the women’s long jump while Austin Nwoye, also of Delta, set a new Games record of 55.23m in the men’s discus – breaking the previous record of 54.24m.
Deborah Okpochini broke a 27-year-old record in swimming. She finished the women’s 100m freestyle event in 1.03.05sec to erase the former record of 1.03.05sec set in 1991 by Ikaghoemi Joshua of Rivers. Delta also set a new record in the women 2×400m freestyle after finishing in 9:49.63 erasing the old time of 10:10.89 set by Ogun State in 2006.
Samuel Kure (javelin) and Chukwuebuka Connel (hammer) also set new records for Delta State.
Reactions
Barcelona 1992 Olympics bronze medallist Mary Onyali said the festival showed that Nigeria had the potential to rule sports if adequate preparation was taken seriously.
“The festival was out for a long time and coming back, it cannot all be a smooth ride for everyone. But with what the athletes have thrown up in Abuja, it shows that Nigeria needs to pay a little more attention to sports,” she said.
“With the right investment and adequate preparation as done in other parts of the world, Nigerian athletes can enjoy success on the global stage.”
Judo coach Catherin Ewa-Ekuta, who represented Nigeria at the 2004 Olympics, called for improvement in the organisation of the next edition of the festival.
She said, “The festival returned after a long time out and all the athletes were excited to participate. It showed what we can do at the Olympics if we pay more attention to details and invest in the athletes. However, those who will host the next edition should note the flaws in this edition to make it a bigger one.”
Credit: punchng.com
