As normally being said that it is not the beginning that matters, but the end, this was the case of Team Ogun at the 20th National Sports Festival which ends today in Benin City, Edo State.
The Team Ogun athletes started its competition at the festival on Sunday, April 4th, 2021, being day one event with no gold medal, but ended the final day of the competition, being yesterday with a resounding three gold and six silver medals.
Though, more than three gold medals were anticipated to be won on the day through various event such as boxing and para-table tennis, but poor officiating from judges robbed the state boxers from achieving the feat. While Ogun people being known for peace had to take the decisions calmly.
The Team Ogun final day gold blessings eventually came from Ishau Ogunkunle, who won two gold medals in his specialised para-table tennis class four category as well as in men’s open class one to five.
Ogunkunle who had already qualified for the Paralympics later in the year in Tokyo has confirmed his readiness to so well in the forthxoming international event.
In the same vein, Fadilat Tijani put the disappointment of her compatriots behind to win a consolation gold for the state in the 60kg bout.
Fadilat, having known what was on ground had to fight her way to beat her opponent and even the judges convincingly as she gave no room for any manipulation against her.
Moreover, all the other six silver medals were in the same boxing and para-table tennis events held on the day. Four silver were acrued from the boxing event while para-table tennis fetched the state the other two silver medals.
With these results, Team Ogun closed Tue medals charts with total of sixteen gold, nineteenth silver and twenty five bronze medals, a result that surpassed that if the last sports festival held 2018 in Abuja.
Meanwhile, despite unofficial announcement of the final medals table, Team Delta is already coasting home the winner’s trophy with over a hundred gold while Edo State is behind with about a hundred gold just as Team Bayelsa follows.
