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Friday, December 7, 2012

Delta Leads Medals Table At Eko 2012, As LOC Plans Musical Concert For Closing

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Delta Leads Medals Table At Eko 2012, As LOC Plans Musical Concert For Closing
Dec 7th 2012, 20:24

Eko-sports-festivalWITH 24 hours to the end of the 18th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012, Delta State is toping the medal table while the Local Organising Committee (LOC) plans a musical concert as part of the closing ceremonies of the sports fiesta.

For 12 days, over 11,000 athletes converged in Lagos for the multi-sports championship with teams competing for medals in 25 Olympics sports.

As at 3:20pm yesterday, Delta had amassed 99 gold, 85 silver and 57 bronze medals. With most of the medals coming from swimming, the team is still hoping to mop more medals at the final day of the competition.

Defending champion, Rivers has won 65 gold, 54 silver and 58 bronze medals, while the host – Lagos has 36 gold, 38 silver and 50 bronze medals to be among the top three teams in the championship. Edo is fourth with 20 gold, 13 silver and 32 bronze medals.

One significant development in this year's competition is that every state has registered a presence on the medal table with the last two teams – Katsina and Sokoto having three bronze medals each.

In athletics, out of the 29 events concluded in the category, Delta is still topping the medal table closely followed by Rivers. So far, Delta has won nine gold, 11 sliver and five bronze medals, while Rivers has eight gold, five silver and eight bronze medals. The host – Lagos is third with three gold, two silver and one bronze medals. The event is expected to end Sunday.

In tennis singles event, Benue's Christian Paul and Rivers' Aanu Aiyegbusi emerged champions. To claim gold in the men's event, Paul defeated Delta's Albert Bikom 1-6, 7-5, 6-4, while Rivers' Aminat Quadri had to retire in the second set to concede victory to her compatriot Aiyegbusi at 6-1, 3-0.

In table tennis, Lagos dominated the event claiming five of the seven gold at stake while Delta won the remaining two.

In the basketball event, Lagos was in superb form yesterday when it defeated Rivers to claim gold medal in the women final. The finals of men and women football event hold today at Agege Stadium.

However, most of the athletes and officials that took part in the competition have hailed host Lagos for quality organization and transparency in all the events.

Director General of Delta Sports Commission, Victor Onogagamue applauded the government and people of Lagos for bringing what he called "transparency" into the organisation of the festival.

"This is the kind of atmosphere you enjoy in a sports festival where the host state is not desperate to host and win at all cost. And I must commend the government and people of Lagos State for keeping to their promise because this idea of hosting to win sports festival made Edo 2002 and the Garden City Games suffer serious credibility problem. What I have seen here is quite different because the battle for who tops the medals table is open, unlike what we had in Edo 2002 and Rivers 2011," Onogagamue said.

He added: "Last year in Port Harcourt, the host did everything to shove aside others in a desperate bid to host and win at all cost. That was the same trend at Edo 2002 Games. If you look at the medals table critically now, you will discover that all the states are sharing the medals. That is the spirit of the festival. Any festival where the winner emerged with a wide gap on the medals table is not credible. I am not saying that everything here is perfect, but I commend Lagos for not following the footsteps of some past hosts of the festival, whose slogan was host to win."

At Eko 2012, all participating states have won medals, as against the practice in some past festivals.  Meanwhile, the Secretary General of LOC, Kweku Tandoh said that among the artistes expected to perform at the closing tomorrow include Seun Kuti, Tiwa Savage, Tuface Idibia, Whizkid, Wande Cole and King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM 1).

His words: "The opening ceremony like closing ceremony of such event is usually a bit more carefree in terms of it being more fun, more of a party, more of a carnival that notwithstanding the LOC is putting together a closing ceremony that would remain in the mind of Nigerians and even the rest of the world. All I can say for now is that we are going to have a lot of musical artistes like Seun Kuti, Tiwa Savage, Tuface Idibia, Whiz Kid, Wande Cole and King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM 1)."

"Even before the official closing ceremony starts at about 6pm, we would have the gates open about 12noon and between that time and 6pm there will be a lot of entertainment and musical shows entertaining the crowd before the closing ceremony and after the closing ceremony the party continues as there will be fireworks and other entertainments. It is going to be an event we believe is going to stay in the mind of everyone that is available to see," he added.

As at Thursday, over 6000 viewers from 45 countries have been confirmed to have watched Eko 2012 online. According to Product Manager, Crown Interactive, Bayo Okunowo, United Kingdom and United States recorded the highest number of viewers aside Nigeria. 881 Nigerian viewers have watched the games; UK has 147 while U.S has 99 viewers.

Countries where viewers have watched the games are Turkey, Austria, India, Italy, India, Italy, Spain, France, Canada, Ghana, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland and host of others.

Okunowo said: "We're pleased to provide you a report on the number of viewers that have watched the Eko 2012 games so far. We've had viewers from 45 countries till date with over 6000 streams and we hope to see this number rise as the games conclude."

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