Edo to Host 2020 National Sports Festival as Delta Wins 19th Edition  

By Duro Ikhazuagbe

Defending champions of the National Sports Festival, Delta State made good its promise to win the 19^th edition which ended yesterday in Abuja with a total haul of 352 medals. It is Delta’s sixth NSF title.

A breakdown of the silverware won by the ‘Big Heart’ state showed the run-away champions harvest 163 gold, 88 silver and 101 bronze medals to retain the title it won in the last edition in Lagos in 2012.

The closest state to Delta on the medals table was Rivers State who hosted and won the 2011 edition in Port Harcourt. Rivers won 69 gold, 58 silver and 67 bronze medals while the next host of the festival in Benin in 2020, Edo State picked 47 gold, 41 silver and 53 bronze medal to place third in the standing.

Delta repeated its winning streak at Bauch 2000, Abuja 2004, Gateway 2006, Kada 2009 and Eko 2012 to remain the leading sports inclined state in the country. The state is reaping its heavy investment is sports infrastructure and human capacity development.

Lagos, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, FCT, Kano, Oyo and Ondo occupied the top 10 spot of the 19^th edition of the festival hosted by the FCT after six years of wait.

Cross River State was awarded the right to host the 19^th edition but failed to put its facilities in order to meet the expectations of the National Council on Sports. FCT stepped in as last minute hosts with a budget of over N1.5billion approved by the Presidency for the festival.

FINAL MEDALS TABLE

STATES Gold Silver Bronze Total

1 Delta 163 88 101 352

2 Rivers 69 58 67 194

3 Edo 47 41 53 141

4 Lagos 36 37 73 146

5 Bayelsa 32 56 48 136

6 Akwa-Ibom 32 26 34 92

7 FCT 21 9 24 54

8 Kano 18 27 24 69

9 Oyo 16 35 44 95

10 Ondo 15 9 23 47

11 Abia 9 6 29 44

12 Ogun 7 15 41 63

13 Osun 7 8 20 35

14 Plateau 6 18 28 52

15 Bauchi 6 12 9 27

16 Anambra 5 11 13 29

17 Cross-River 5 9 7 21

18 Imo 5 3 13 21

19 Kebbi 5 3 4 12

20 Kaduna 4 7 8 19

21 Niger 4 6 6 16

22 Kogi 2 2 8 12

23 Kwara 1 6 5 12

24 Nasarawa 1 5 8 14

25 Jigawa 1 3 1 5

26 Benue 1 2 7 10

27 Yobe 1 2 6 9

28 Enugu 1 2 2 5

29 Gombe 0 4 7 11

30 Borno 0 2 5 7

31 Ekiti 0 2 4 6

32 Zamfara 0 1 1 2

33 Adamawa 0 1 0 1

34 Sokoto 0 0 5 5

35 Taraba 0 0 4 4

36 Ebonyi 0 0 0 0

37 Katsina 0 0 0 0

TOTAL 520 516 732 1768