NSF: Oyo GM attributes successes to grassroots development

The General Manager, Oyo State Sports Commission (OSSC), Gboyega Makinde on Thursday attributed the successes recorded by the state at the sports festival  to grassroots development.

According to report, Team Oyo is occupying  the 4th on the overall medals table at the ongoing sports festival in Asaba, Delta.

Team Oyo won 15 gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze to scoop a total 55 medals.

The state contingents added five gold medals on day 8 in the weightlifting event with the 2022 Commonwealth Gold medalist, Rafiatu Lawal leading the pack with three gold medals.

In the 59kg event finals, Lawal battled Adijat Olarinoye, her fellow gold medalist at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham where she made her experience count to win the three gold medals.

Ruth Ayodele fought for gold in Clean and Jerk with a total lifting of 125kg and 222kg respectively.

Makinde said that the state had been making concerted efforts at developing talents from the grassroots a selling point to their success at the festival.

“We are on the threshold of raising athletes from the grassroots in Oyo state, this is a deliberate policy aimed at developing sports in the state.

“We are going to the grassroots, secondary school and primary schools alike to scout for talents and to discover them. They are at first introduced to the Youth Games.

“From the cadet category, we look at ways in which the coaches can work on them to put them in the elite category and this has helped a lot in this sports festival.

“We are hoping to have more discoveries in weightlifting like our gold medalist, Lawal. I already have confidence that she will do well because she is determined, he said.

Makinde said t that the revival of grassroots sports in the state started with Edo 2020, adding that the state would continue to improve its standing in the overall medals table.

“We started our improvement in sports development with Edo 2020 and we want to keep improving in all the sports.

“In everything we do in life, we must set target and that is what we have done right now, in this festival, we are giving a fight and I am optimistic that we will get more medals.

“We are hoping to get more medals in weightlifting, athletics and of course our stronghold, Chess event, he said.