Kelvin Obambon|16 December 2018
ABUJA – The Cross River State contingent to the 19th National Sports Festival held in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, have went home with 21 medals as the curtain falls on the sport fiesta NEGROIDHAVEN can report authoritatively.
The team which was made up of 55 athletes apparently participated in eight events of which they garnered 21 medals from 7. The events in which medals were won are: table tennis 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze; weightlifting 1 gold and 6 silver; athletics 2 gold; swimming 1 silver and 1 bronze; wrestling 2 silver; boxing 1 silver and karate 1 bronze. Event which did not yield any medal is taekwondo, as athletes in that specialty were however unlucky.
A further breakdown of medals the team won in all events they participated in shows that Cross River won 5 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze, thereby placing them 19th on the overall medal table with Delta(157 gold, 76 silver, 91 bronze), Rivers(63 gold, 51 silver, 64 bronze) and Edo(39 gold, 37 silver, 49 bronze) coming first, second and third respectively.
A total of 1634 medals were won in this year's competition.
The 19th National Sports Festival had participants from 34 states and the FCT while Ebonyi and Katsina states did not take part in the event.
Meanwhile, bidding for the 2020 edition has since commenced, with Cross River, Delta and Edo leading the pack.
Obambon blogs for NEGROIDHAVEN
