History was made Sunday, when Team Delta won the 4th edition of the National Youth Games. The team has won all four editions of the competition.
Team Delta won the multi-sports youth development Games for the third time in 2017, after hauling 61 medals, including 22 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze.
The state finished the fourth edition with a total of 67 medals, made up of 27 gold, 24 silver and 16 bronze, to win the 2018 Games.
Lagos, emerged second after securing a total of 60 medals — 23 gold, 15 silver and 22 bronze. The team however, did not participate in the second and third editions
[penci_blockquote style=”style-2″ align=”none” author=””]Twenty-nine states recorded medals, with Team Adamawa coming last among the states with medals, as they got only one bronze.[/penci_blockquote]
Team Bayelsa and Ogun both emerged third, winning 34 medals — 11 gold, 7 silver and 16 bronze each. Akwa-Ibom and Abia came fourth and fifth respectively.
The host team, Team Kwara, had a decline in their performance, in this edition finishing ninth, with five gold, nine silver and four bronze medals. They were fourth position in the 2017 edition.
Twenty-nine states recorded medals, with Team Adamawa coming last among the states with medals, as they got only one bronze.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, Mr Olushola Alashade, who declared the Games closed, said that the Ministry was achieving its objective of using the Games to discover young athletes.
The National Youth Games was introduced in 2013, as a youth development initiative when the National Sports Festival was opened.
[penci_related_posts taxonomies=”undefined” title=”Online Related Posts” background=”” border=”” thumbright=”no” number=”4″ style=”grid” align=”none” displayby=”recent_posts” orderby=”random”]
It was designed to hold annually, but that was only achieved three years after the first edition.
The 17-years age bar was reduced to 15 after the third edition in 2017, to ensure that the youth development target was sustained.
The fifth edition in 2019 will also hold at the University of Ilorin, as the Better by Far University has a five-year hosting right for the Games starting from the 2018 edition.