NYG: No Medals To Athletes

Minister of Sports and Chairman of the NSC, Bolaji Abdullahi had declared that no medals would be given to participating athletes and teams.

He explained that the reason for this was to discourage cheating, stressing that the athletes would get a certificate of participation.

The move according to him,  is to ensure that there will be no incentive for cheating and that contingents do not have room to bring overage children into the competition
 He explained that, ``the moment we start giving medals, everyone leading athletes to this competition will worry about their position on the medals table. Therefore, they will do all they can to win and this will defeat the objective of the competition which is developmental.”

 Following the Minister’s directive on strict compliance with the age requirement, many would-be athletes presented by some states were screened out on Saturday, 7 December 2013 for being over the age of 17. Benue state was particularly affected as many of the athletes they presented for the team sports were screened out for being over the minimum age.

Abdullahi said he was happy with the screening exercise, especially as the officials were very thorough. “ If we allow athletes over the minimum age, that would defeat the purpose of the games,” he stated.