By Anne Azuka
Delta State has successfully defended the 21st National Sports Festival tagged “Delta 2022” as it finished top of the medals table with 648 medals.
Team Delta who won the last edition in Edo State retained the trophy with 320 gold, 200 silver and 128 bronze medals with a total of 648 medals.
Bayelsa State finished second on the medals chart with 132 gold 115 silver and 90 bronze summing it’s total medals to 337 while Edo State emerged third position with 78 gold, 94 silver and 167 bronze medals.
Ten States failed to grab a gold medal in all the events they competed while Zamfara State was the only State that would return home without a single medal at the 21st National Sports Festival.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Youths and Sports, Mr Sunday Dare while declaring the sports festival close announced Ogun State as the next State to host the 22nd National Sports Festival in 2024.
Mr Dare also revealed that Oyo State finished as runners up to host the event.
He noted that the decision to unveil the runners up was to avoid anything that could hamper the event, stressing that if the host State was not prepared before time, the hosting right would be passed to the runners up.
The closing ceremony featured the presentation of the trophy to team Delta, Bayelsa and Edo State and the passing of the hosting right to Ogun State.
Fans at the stadium were thrilled by Delta born wrapper, Erigga, Zoro and Zlatan.
