BENIN CITY – The National Youth Games held in Ilorin might have come and gone, but for Team Edo comprising of 176 athletes, it was an avenue to showcase talents and discover new athletes, who are potential Champions for the Nation.
Though team Edo came 3rd position on the medals table with 18 Gold, 10 Silver and 12 Bronze, it is on record that Edo paraded most of the youngest athletes across all games, in the tournament characterized by over aged athletes, which the minister of Youth and acknowledged during the closing ceremony of the tournament.
If well developed and groomed, the future of the Nations High Jump games will rest on the shoulders of young talented athletes such as 14 year old Justin Jimoh from Edo state, who just set a new tournament record of 1.93 in high Jump, showing raw talent, zeel and passion. According to him “I have not been training and I am not a professional. My coach only saw me once and said I have a lot of potentials, so I trained for some weeks to have this. So when I go back, i will train harder to set more records”
Edo, known to be the best in Combat sports in the country may once again dominate boxing if the talent of 13 year old Gold medallist, Ismiala Amirat is groomed to be the best, with her current zeal saying “now I have to go back and train harder with my coach, as this is my first tournament, and I started training 3 months ago”.
We can not also forget 10 years old Nwankego Okafor who featured in the 43KG event of Boxing and the youngest in her category and still displayed the Edo spirit of resilience and got to the Quarter Finals, nor the resilience of 11 years old Bronze Medallist Kung FU fighter Prosper Osazuwa who first participated the the NYG 2 years ago when he was just 9.
These are the few among the many talented athletes who made Edo proud, not forgetting the young Rugby and Cricket players who won Gold for the state and equally promised to dominate Nigeria in their Generation.
But for the government, according to the coordinator sports unit, Office of the deputy Governor, Mrs Sabina Chikere, “the state will ensure proper grooming of these young ones that are here today to replace the professionals we have now, which is the actual essence of the youth games, to discover new talents. That is what we are doing in Edo, not buying medals for them like some states are currently doing. No we won’t destroy the future of these young ones by buying medals, we have earned our medals and I am proud of our athletes.”
Throwing more light on the succession plan of Athletes, Mrs Chikere explained that “we are going back to the schools. We must revive school sports so that we identify these talents on time and start grooming them from that early age to take over from the older ones. We are going to be deliberate in doing this and it will be in all sports. Thank God our working Governor, Godwin Obaseki has provided World Class Facilities at the stadium so we have the right equipments to train now, and soon we will dominate all sports and take our place as the number 1 sports destinations in the country.
