By Yinka Owolewa and Chimezie Anaso
Ilorin – Host Team, Kwara and Anambra have clinched their first gold medals at the ongoing 3rd National Youth Games (NYG) in Ilorin in the Karate event.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Kwara’s gold medal came through national Karate bronze medallist, Bashir Abdulazeez.
Abdulazeez defeated Delta representative, Omotayo Agbolade by Sensu after both tied 5-5 in the -55kg male event.
Ikobong Uko of Akwa Ibom and Abdulraman Mohammed of Bauchi both won bronze medals respectively.
NAN reports that Abdulazeez had won gold medal at the 2nd edition of the Games in Ilorin in 2016.
The athlete was part of the team that made the country proud at the UFAK Zone 3 Karate Championship in Cotonou, Benin Republic recently.
Anambra’s gold medal came through Peter Emmanuel, who won Kelvin David of Plateau in the -50kg male category.
The Coach of Team Anambra, Godwin Okoro, said the victory was a welcome development and a vindication of his efforts at discovering future athletes.
Okoro, who congratulated his athletes for their impressive showing and making the state proud, noted that he had targeted more medals from the event.
It will be recalled that Okoro had faulted the decisions of the officials in the fight involving his female athletes, Blessing Nnadozie and Amarachi Nwafor on Monday.
He had also threatened to stop his team from featuring in future Games if the unfair treatment continued.
In other games, Anambra has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Cricket competition in the female category.
This was after it beat Plateau girls with 54 runs in 5.4 overs with the loss of eight wickets against their opponents’ 51 runs in 10 overs with two wickets.
Edo also qualified for the last four after beating Kaduna girls’ 81 runs and loss of three wickets in 10 overs against their opponents 55 runs and loss of nine wickets also in 10 overs.
Anambra will play with Akwa Ibom, while Edo will play with Oyo in the semi-finals of the cricket competition. (NAN)
