Says Ministry Worked Hard to Ensure Sustained Momentum from Edo 2020.
ASABA – (Federal Ministry of Youth & Sports Development Report) – The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare has expressed satisfaction with the level of activities at the ongoing National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State. The Minister made the assertion after swiftly returning to Asaba from the 62nd Ordinary Session of Authority of Heads of State and Government at the start of the week.
While fielding questions from the press after another tour of various game venues, Dare commented that the Festival has lived up to billing, inspite of the short span of time that the Ministry and the Delta State Government had to plan.
“We have not been disappointed. We have seen very young athletes from virtually all the States compete in various sports, with the youngest at about eight years old. This speaks to grassroots development, a major focus of our administration. What Delta State has put together in just about a few months testifies to how well they have done,” he posited.
“Every room for improvement is being noted and the standard of the game will certainly continue to get better year on year. The most important thing is that we made this happen. We built up a momentum in Edo State, we sustained it through Delta State and we hope that by December 10th when we announce the next hosts, we can sustain that too.”
According to him, few years ago, the National Sports Festival suffered a six – year period that the games did not hold. Dare stated that priority attention is now being given to the festival to ensure that budding talents at home do not suffer the impacts of hosting failure.
As at the start of Day 6, he mentioned, the host, Delta State was comfortably leading the medals table with 69 gold, 33 silver and 25 bronze medals. He indicated that Ogun State placed second with 10 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze medals, while Oyo State was third with 9 gold, 10 silver and 6 bronze medals.
