Delta State continues with their dominance of the youth games, as they emerged the winner for a record sixth-time claiming the highest number of medals (114), while Lagos State came second with 72 medals.
This year’s National Youth Games reignited the the true spirit of sports and it’s purpose in Nigeria, although there are few lessons we learnt and there a lot of things that needs to be corrected, before staging the 7th edition which has been scheduled to take place in Kano State.
- Age Cheat
The success of the 6th edition of the NYG was marred by a lot of irregularities one of which was age cheat.
The Minister of Youths And Sports, Sunday Dare, who was unhappy over the current trend of age cheat at the Youth Games in Ilorin condemned the act and vowed to stop it going forward.
“I want to condemned and express my disappointment about a few of the problem around age cheating that continues to roar it’s head specifically even during this games”.
“The Ministry for Youths And Sports Development wants to declare that going forward we will ensure that we will adopt more scientific means of identifying age cheat next time and melt out stiff penalties to the offending athletes and the state they represent”.
2. Win-at-All-Costs Syndrome
The desperation of some of the state officials to emerged as the winner of the Youth Games must be discouraged and condemned.
The purpose of the NYG should be for talent discovery and development. The high level of Win-at-All-Costs syndrome demonstrated by some states in Ilorin, defeated the real essence of the event.
The Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Mr. Sola Aiyepeku, who was present in Ilorin for the Youth Games frown at the the unsportsmanlike attitude.
He said during an interview with This Day, “How can we explain a situation when athletes of 10-11 years old competing with their seniors in a youth games?
“It is a sad scenario. If we continue like this, as a nation, it will not end well.
“In those days, Nigeria was a leading force in Africa sprint, but today, other countries have taken over from us. This is because we don’t have the pool of athletes from the domestic front who will take over from the ageing ones”.
3.Talent Discovery
Despite the age cheat and the win-at-all-costs syndrome that ravaged the Youth Games, some young athletes within the approved age limit stands out as they posted worthy performances.
Deji Akiwuwo, a Deaf Athlete from Lagos State, who won three Gold medals in Deaf Athletics, was specially recognized and called to the podium, at the closing ceremony by the Nigeria Sports Minister for his exceptional performance.
Deji was rewarded with a sum of N200,000 naira by the Sports Minister for winning three Gold medals in 100m, 200m and 400m race.
A lot of Athletes like Deji were discovered during the Youth Games. These Athletes if properly nurtured are potential Olympics and Paralympics Gold medalist.
The 7th edition of the National Youth Games will be staged in Kano State next year. The Nigeria Sports Ministry must be firm and ensure we have a worthy event void of age-cheat, win-at-all-costs syndrome and any vices capable of rubbishing the original essence of the event.
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Olawale Quadry is a Mass Communication graduate, creative writer and pundit with eight years of experience and deep knowledge of Nigerian sports. He has previously written for SL10, South Africa, TribaI Football and Opera News. Follow him on Twitter @QualityQuadry
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