19th National Sports Festival: With homegrown athletes Lagos finishes fourth

For over nine days, Team Lagos was shuttling between 12th and 10th places on the medal table but in the last two days of the competition, the team moved up to finish fourth at the 19th National Sports Festival concluded yesterday in Abuja.

An excited Chairman Lagos Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, hailed Governor Akinwunmi Ambode for his huge support to the team.

To finish fourth, Team Lagos amassed 146 medals comprise of 36 gold, 37silver and 73 bronze medal being the highest among all the 36 states that participated.

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.

“It’s 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 a very big congratulation 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,” Tandoh said.