Team Delta were Sunday
evening declared overall winners of the 18th National Sports Festival, as a
grand closing ceremony ended the Eko 2012 Games at the Teslim Balogun Stadium
in Sururlere, Lagos State, Western Nigeria.
Team Delta,
that won a total of 288 medals; 116 gold, 97 silver and 75 bronze, were
presented with the Gen Yakubu Gowon Trophy at a colourful closing ceremony held
this evening in Surulere.
Rivers State,
that won the last edition of the festival held in Port Harcourt in 2011, came
second with 76 gold, 71 silver and 71 bronze to garner a total of 218 medals.
Lagos governor, Raji
Fashola and his deputy, Orelope Adefulire posed with the third place trophy
that Lagos won
Hosts, Team Lagos
finished third with 65 gold, 47 silver and 71 bronze, winning a total of 183
medals.
At the presentation
ceremony, Delta State governor and his wife, Emmanuel and Deaconess Uduaghan
were on ground to cheer their team that came second at the last edition in
2011.
The closing
ceremony, held to honour all participants from 36 states of the federation
including the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, brought the athletes together
as a symbol of national unity.
Shortly after the
trophy was handed over to the overall winners, the Flag of Unity was presented
to Cross River State that would host the 19th edition of the festival in 2014
in Calabar.
The Chairman of Eko
2012 festival, Adejoke Adefulire, who doubles as Deputy Governor of Lagos
State, handed the flag to Governor Babatunde Fashola, who passed it to the
Director of National Sports Commission, NSC, Patrick Ekeji, who finally
presented it to Patrick Ugbe, the Cross River State Sports Commissioner.
Soon after the flag
exchanged hands from Lagos to Cross River State, this year’s festival was
formally declared closed by President Goodluck Jonathan, who was represented by
Nigeria’s Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi.
Abdullahi praised
Governor Fashola and his people in Lagos State for organising the festival this
year.
The host governor,
Fashola said Lagos was glad to finish third at the Games.
“Our joy as hosts of
Eko 2012 National Sports Festival is that many young athletes were discovered
at the games. They are the overall winners by my estimation because these are
the future of Nigerian sports,” Fashola said.
The Lagos governor
added: “I wish all the 12,000 athletes and officials journey mercies as you
head back to your states.”
Top Nigerian music
acts such as Wasiu Ayinde KWAM 1, Wande Cole, Whiz Kid, Seun Kuti and Tu Face
Idibia performed at the ceremony, which ended 9:38pm.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please comments are invited