The Day 6 of the ongoing 19th National Sports Festival ended with the finals of the 100m men and women races decided.
With the semi-finals races earlier decided in the day, all attention were focused on the final races which was keenly contested by the finalists.
In the men race, Usheoritse Itsekiri of Rivers state shrugged off his closest challenger from Delta state, Egwero Ogho Oghene to win the finals posting a time of 10:28 sec.
Oghene finished second with a time of 10:32sec while Enoch Obaloluwa Adegoke representing Rivers came third posting a time of 10:32 sec.
Itsekiri while speaking with Daily Trust said he was happy to get the job done as he wasn’t expecting to win.
“It was a great experience, a great competition. I am happy I got the job done. I wasn’t expecting to win because the other guys had better training than me, so I just came here to run,” he said.
In the women race, Boluwatife Margaret Bukola from Ondo State against all odds clinched the gold medal of the 100m women race by posting a time of 10:27 sec.
Joy Gabriel of Delta state who was the clear favourite to win the race managed to come third with a time of 11:53 sec behind Akwa Ibom’s Peace Uko who posted a time of 11:52 sec
While speaking with Daily Trust, Bukola said she could not believe she won the race since she was not fully fit for the Games.
“I didn’t believe I could win this race. In 2013, I was in the camp and I had injury. Since then I was not able to come to the tracks.
This is the first time for me coming back to the tracks since 2013. I dedicate this victory to God Almighty. He made it possible for me to here with my leg because it’s not ok. I broke my leg in camp.
Meanwhile, as at the time of writing this report, Team Delta have continued to dominate the medals table with 139 medals comprising of 69 gold, 31 silver and 39 bronze.
Followed closely is Team Rivers who have amassed 89 medals comprising of 28 gold, 30 silver and 31 bronze.
Teams Edo, Kano and Lagos complete the top 5 with a total of 51, 35 and 58 medals respectively.
However, some states are yet to win a single medal. They are Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Zamfara.
In total, 198 gold, 195 silver and 293 medals have been won making it a total of 686 medals on Day 6 of the Festival.
