Ambode Biggest Winner Of 19th National Sports Festival – Tandoh
Though Team Lagos came overall 4th winner at the recently concluded 19th National Sports Festival, the result notwithstanding, Lagos athletes are happy that they prosecuted the festival with young and bussing talent.
Team Delta came first with Rivers and Edo states picking second and third positions respectively at the Festival held in Abuja.
Chairman of the Governing Board of Lagos State Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, poured encomiums on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his magnanimity in supporting the vision of the Commission to participate at the Festival with young athletes without recourse to poaching and luring athletes with money.
“It feels good to know that Team Lagos presented the youngest athlete at Abuja 2018, and also created the biggest upset in the entire festival achieved in the women’s table tennis event.
“We take consolation in the fact that the states that emerged on the overall medals’ ahead of Team Lagos were aided by foreign based professionals who exploited the opportunities of the Sports Ministry declaring the festival open to all classes of participants.
“We stuck to our guns following strictly the original tenets of the National Sports Festival which is basically to discover and develop hidden talents for the country. We are satisfied that Team Lagos has done that for Nigeria at Abuja 2018.
“With consistency, we are sure of making remarkable improvements at the next edition of the festival. I want to say very big congratulations to all our registered 442 athletes who competed in the festival as they are all winners and give kudos to those 146 athletes who won medals for Team Lagos.
“Our Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, is the biggest winner here with his total support and funding of Team Lagos to the Festival. We say a very big thank you for keeping Lagos sports going,” Dr. Kweku Tandoh said.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that Team Lagos holding strictly to its principle of youth sports development, amassed a total 146 medals with a breakdown showing 36 gold, 37 silver and 73 bronze the biggest haul among all the 36 states that participated.
The sports festival was a tournament described by some sports pundits as contests for the highest bidders with some states throwing caution to the dustbin, and in their bids to haul many medals went on buying spree to get the attention of star athletes.
Dr. Tandoh, who was in Abuja throughout the duration of the 19th National Sports Festival, supporting and giving desired morale booster to all the 442 athletes that participated in the biggest sports fiesta in Nigeria, said to a reasonable extent he was satisfied with the performances of Team Lagos athletes and officials especially as the state stuck to its principle of using homegrown athletes who developed under the tutelage of the state’s grassroots development programme over the years.
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