The
Director of Sports Lagos State, Dr. Kweku Tandoh has hailed the
performance of Team Lagos at the just concluded 7th National Schools
Sports Festival, saying that they have made the state proud at the
Otukpo, Benue State tournament.
At
the end of the competition, Team Lagos came third on the overall medal
table with a total of 74 gold, 51 silver and 53 bronze medals, behind
Team Anambra which came second with 81 gold, 104 silver and 119 bronze
medals and the winners, Team Cross River which won 124 gold, 91 silver
and 84 bronze medals.
Lagos,
however, was adjudged the third best team in the Junior and Senior
Categories and second best team in the Primary Category.
The
organisers of the Games, Schools Sports Federation of Nigeria, SSFN,
also gave Lagos State an award as the only state that has participated
in every edition since inception of the championship.
Interestingly,
Team Lagos surpassed last year's medal haul of 49 gold medals. Team
Lagos made its presence felt this year in all the 16 sports it entered
for with at least a gold medal in each of the sports. Lagos State showed
dominance in sports such as Gymnastics winning 16 gold, Scrabble (13
gold), Taekwondo (9 gold), Athletics Seniors (8 gold), Table Tennis (6
gold), Wrestling Seniors (5 gold), Tennis (4 gold), Chess (3 gold) and
Karate (3 gold).
Dr.
Tandoh, while commending the athletes for their excellent performance
in the competition, said that "Lagos State participated in 16 out of the
19 sports and we did not enter any athlete in the primary schools
category except in Scrabble and Taekwondo.
"We
came to this Games with 198 athletes whereas states such as Cross
River, Anambra came with over 600 athletes each. Our athlete to medal
ratio is therefore the best in this year's Games. The athletes have
really done well."
Tandoh
noted that Lagos will continue to place a high premium on grassroots
sports development as it is the only way raw and young talents can be
discovered and groomed to become national and world beaters in the
future.
He congratulated Cross River State for emerging as overall winners at the Games.
He
paid glowing tributes to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola and the
Commissioner for Youth, Sports and Social Development, Mr. Wahid Enitan
Oshodi for the support given to Team Lagos.
The closing ceremony of the festival was held Saturday afternoon at St. Frances College, Otukpo, Benue State.
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