Cross River wins 2012 Fidelity Bank-NYSC sports festival

Category: Sports Published on Saturday, 09 February 2013 13:40

Cross River State has won the 2012 edition of Fidelity Bank-NYSC Sports and cultural festival after carting away two Gold medals and a Bronze medal.

The festival which started on Monday 4th of February, ended on Thursday, 7th of same month with a closing ceremony at the Old Parade ground, Abuja.

The Southern State won gold medals in the football and 100m (female) competitions as well as Bronze medal in the female 4/100m race.

The Cross River State football team scored an 80th minutes goal to beat its opponents, Delta State to lift the trophy at the end of the closely contested match.

In the third place match played earlier in the day, Nasarawa State defeated Osun State with a lone goal to win the Bronze medal.

Edo State won the Volleyball competition which only had the female category while Kebbi State and Nasarawa took the second and third positions respectively.

Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Ogun and Ekiti State won the first, second and third positions respectively, in the male category of 100m race while Cross River State won the gold medal in the female category as Lagos State and Delta State came second and third respectively.

In the 4/100 male category, Ogun State came top while FCT took the second position and Lagos State settled for the Bronze medal.

Delta State lifted the Gold medal in the female category while Silver and Bronze medals were won by Niger and Cross River states respectively.

Cash reward

Apart from the trophies and medals given to the winning athletes, cash rewards were also offered.

Individual money prize was giving to each player that participated in the team competitions with the Gold medal winners getting N10.000 each while silver and Bronze medallists got N7,500 and N6000 respectively. All participants get a conciliatory N5000 money prize.

For the athletics, Gold medallists went home with N30,000 each, Silver medallists got N20,000 each, Bronze Medallists settled for N10,000 each while all participants got N5000 each.

The winning States were not left out as N100,000, N65,000 and N35,000 went to States that won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals respectively. All participating states got N20,000 each.

Fitness, the target

Speaking to Dailytrust after the event the Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi stressed the government's intention to continuously engage the youths positively.

The Minister who was represented by the Ministry's Director of Grassroot sports, Alhassan Yakmut, said the championship created an avenue for talents to be identified and developed.

He also noted that the major target of the government while staging the championship was to engender national integration as well as encourage unity in the country through sports.

Besides, the Minister said the championship helped improve the level of physical fitness of the youths, which he said was an integral part of the programme of the current administration.

"We need to improve our level of fitness."