Once again, Delta state has proved that their dominance over sports in the country is no fluke as Team Delta emerged champions of the 22nd National Sports Festival tagged the Gateway Games which ended yesterday with a colourful ceremony.
Nigeria’s Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the closing ceremony while the likes of Lagos state governor, Sanwo-Olu grace the occasion alongside the chief hosts ,Prince Dapo Abiodun alongside other top government functionaries.
Blueprint can report that the closing ceremony is a roll call of who is who in Nigeria’s sports while music icon KWAM1 performed with several grade one artistes on displayed.
Delta state the South-south state emerged champions after carting home 109 gold medals with 75 and 87 silver and bronze medals respectively to get a total of 271 out of 1721 overall medals available.
Bayelsa, another South-south state came second with 80, 54, 59 gold, silver and bronze medals respectively to get a total of 193.
Bayelsa came second in the last edition of the Sports Festival at Asaba.
Bayelsa won the recently-concluded Nigeria Delta Games in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state but at the Gateway Games, Delta showed class and their dominance.
The host State, Ogun came third with 69 gold, 52silver and 62 bronze totalling 187 medals.
Since the history of Sports Festival this is the best ever results the state is getting at the festiva. The state hosted the festival in 2006.
The fourth, fifth, sixth teams are Rivers, Edo, Oyo, while Lagos, FCT, Osun and Abia complete the first 10 teams on the medal table.
Meanwhile, some states did not record any gold medals at the Games which is climaxing which ended yesterday.
The States are mainly from the north and they are: Borno, Yobe, Jigawa, Adamawa, Sokoto, Taraba, Kebbi, Kogi and Zamfara states.
The next host, Enugu only recorded one gold medal with seven silver and six bronze medals, totalling 14 medals.
Recall that since the return to democracy in 1999, Delta has won the National Sports Festival eight times in ten appearances. The next National Sports Festival will come up in 2026 in Enugu state.