The performance of Team Lagos in the ongoing 21st National Sports Festival tagged Delta 2022 Games has been hailed by the Executive Chairman of Lagos State Sports Commission, Mr. Sola Aiyepeku.
Aiyepeku particularly praised the athlete’s determination to excel in the face of numerous challenges faced in the course of taking part in the games in their various sports.
He said in sports competition, there must be equity and fairness so that those who win or lose would accept the results with open mind, but in the case of the Delta 2022, cases of biases and official wrong calls marred some of the events which involved Team Lagos, a contingent of young athletes in this year’s tournament.
Independent News Express reports jhow two of the state’s boxers were openly robbed in the boxing event on Thursday during the finals at the Event Centre in Asaba.
Oyesiji Adeola from Lagos State fought for gold medal in her bout against Adesina Zanaib of Bayelsa in the F50kg, but the judges’ decision gave it to her opponent. The fight between Lagos state’ Kareem Sukura and Adewale Pelumi from Edo State in the F54kg was another eyesore when a 1-4 score was given to the Lagos pugilist who exhibited superior fighting power over the Edo boxer. All pleas for the officials of Nigeria Boxing Federation to have the two results reversed proved abortive.
“Despite the challenges we faced, I think the athletes gave their best. When you gave in your best in preparation, you will be expecting some levels of equity and fairness in the officiating when the tournament starts proper. Unfortunately, when our athletes are giving in their best, in return, there is no fairness in adjudging their games,” Aiyepeku said.
“Nonetheless, the result on the medal table shows that our athletes are not pushovers. They came here and conquered,” he said.
According to the Chairman, Lagos will always live by example by doing the right things all the time, adding that “In Lagos, our target is always on developmental, and you can see this in any tournament we featured in that our athletes are built around developmental indices notwithstanding the oppositions we are going to meet in such tournaments. This shows that we are not in a rush to win, but we take cognizant recognition of the future of our athletes which is the essence of sports.
“Let me emphasize that we won’t abandon this policy for the sake of win at all costs. It is what we believe in, and we must practice it.
“Unfortunately, the idea of the sports festival has been abandoned and if we are to get it right as a people, something must be done if through our authorities are serious and they really want to development our sports and groom athletes. I will suggest that a professional sports festival be created to take care of those who are zealous of winning at all costs. instead of making the sports festival opened and be subject of ridicule like what we saw here,” he said.
Aiyepeku disclosed that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, a lover of the youths, who is passionate about their development and future, has aligned with the developmental policy in Lagos State.
“I am happy to say that Mr Governor is with us in this developmental programme in Lagos State, even as we want to ensure that the athletes that we keep are loyal and committed to the state.
“How will you explain a situation where an athlete competed for a state in an edition of a national sports festival and in the next edition you will see such athlete competing opening with impunity for another state? We need to have a conversation that we address this issue and put our sports in the direction of catching them young for developmental purposes,” he said.
