The Ondo state Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Dotun Owanikin Esq. has congratulated the Ondo state sports council authority, teams and officials for qualifying for Edo 2020 National Sports Festival.
The State came with six teams namely volleyball and beach volleyball (male), abula (male and mixed doubles), basketball (male and female), football (female), hockey (female), handball (male) to the South West National Sports Festival Elimination in Lagos and all qualified for the game proper in Benin city, Edo state capital this March.
The Commissioner, on matches day one had expressed optimism that Ondo state would qualify for the National Sports Festival with multiple teams following their impressive performances and displays against their opponents.
Barrister Owanikin who was at hand to give moral and necessary support to the teams and officials said the impressive results were borne out of the state government commitment to promote sports in the state and gave credits to stakeholders and administrators for their commitments and sacrifices.
In his congratulatory message the Commissioner said “Congratulations to all of us, the good people of Ondo state. Our atheletes demonstrated once again the WE CAN attributes of an average Ondoite. That we are the only state in the South West that qualified in ALL ball games we registered for speaks volume.Thank you all”.
In the matches decided on Wednesday the Ondo hockey team defeated its Ogun counterpart with two goals to nothing, while Ondo handball team defeated their Oyo opponent by 23 points to 13.
In the abula male category, Ondo scored two goals to defeat Ogun who scored a goal and in the basketball categories Ondo male team beat Osun 71 to 54 points while Ondo female team scored 44 points to defeat their Ogun counterparts who had 30 points.
The Ondo football team was unlucky to go away with a three points as their Ogun counterparts scored a late equaliser to force them to a one all draw.
Lagos state volleyball team was not so lucky to have a point as Ondo team humiliated them by three points to nothing.
In the matches day two, Ondo volleyball team defeated Oyo by three points to nill, Ogun by 3 to one. At the end of Abula Mixed Doubles, Ondo thrashed Ogun and Lagos by two goals to nothing each just as Ondo beach volleyball humiliated Oyo by two goals to one.
In the male basketball feature, Ondo narrowly edge passed Ogun with 55 points to 54, Ondo hockey team (female) beat Oyo by 6 goals to nothing. Ondo three Ogun one it ended in the male category of volleyball and in the basketball (female) Lagos defeated Ondo with scores of 52 to 43 but Ondo team had qualified earlier while in the three matches decided in the handball, Ondo beat Osun 22 to 14, Ogun 33 to 20 and Lagos won 21 to 13.
Ondo female football team was also forced to a 2 all draw by their Osun counterparts but Ondo had to qualify on goals superiority.
Augustine Adeoye
Media Manager
Ministry of Youth and Sports Development
JATS Online News 