Cheers, challenges, and Chaos: Chronicles of 2024 National Sports Festival

After two weeks of nonstop actions at the 22nd National Sports Festival in Ogun State, ABIODUN ADEWALE writes on some of the moments that defined the Gateway Games 2024

Nineteen years after hosting the National Sports Festival for the first time, Ogun State welcomed the rest of the country again for the 22nd edition of the multi-sports event between May 16 and 30.

About 10,000 athletes competed for honours in about 38 sports with Delta State reigning supreme for the fifth successive time and ninth time overall. They won 126 gold, 100 silver and 111 bronze medals to top the medals table.

Beyond the assertion of being the best sports festival in the history of Nigeria, the games were defined by some moments, which tested the system and ultimately served as a template for subsequent editions.

Glamorous opening and closing ceremonies

To begin with, the perception of an average Nigerian about the glamour of the opening and closing ceremonies is the commonest yardstick to measure a successful National Sports Festival.

were is what an average resident of the host state will remember, and Ogun State didn’t disappoint with the spectacle they brought into the MKO Abiola Sports Arena on Sunday, May 18 and Thursday, May 29.

From Asa to Waje, the rendition of the national anthems on both nights didn’t lack soul. Not to forget the heavily worded speech of President Bola Tinubu, who was represented by Vice President, Kashim Shettima.

In terms of performances, Davido and Wande Coal were showstoppers for the opening and closing ceremonies respectively, leaving the spectators wanting more.

The athletes turned up in style too, with Team Lagos showing everyone how much practice they’ve put in for the parade, while the hosts, Team Ogun, gave everyone a taste of ‘Egbaliganza’.

Coincidentally, Governor Dapo Abiodun also marked his 65th birthday during the closing ceremony and the icing on the cake for everyone on the night was the serenading performance of Fuji music icon, Wasiu Ayinde, popularly known as K1 de Ultimate.

Hygienic feeding and accommodation

It’s hard to remember a National Sports Festival when athletes didn’t complain about feeding or some deficiencies in their accommodation.

Gateway Games 2024 was arguably the first National Sports Festival where athletes did not lament about the quality of either.

About 10,000 athletes were camped at the games village in Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, where they enjoyed the serenity of the private institution of learning in the absence of their students.

Of course, there were dissenting voices about food from Team Edo, but one out of 38 is a far cry from tainting the efforts of those in charge at the Babcock kitchen.

Invited Junior Athletes

Dubbed as the 38th state of this year’s National Sports Festival, a bunch of young Nigerian athletes got the chance to compete at elite level under the Invited Junior Athlete initiative of the National Sports Commission.

Numbering about 100 athletes, the IJA were former champions in different sports at the last National Youth Games, including the male and female national U-17 football team.

The chaps gave a good account of themselves with 18 medals consisting of two gold, which were won by 14-year-old Amarachi Chijioke in the women’s 45kg weightlifting event. They also had nine silver and 11 bronze medals, finishing 18th on the medals table.

Inspiring stories of athletes

From the mother and daughter who won medals for Lagos State in weightlifting, to the husband and wife who claimed multiple shooting medals for Delta State, the Gateway Games 2024 didn’t fail to deliver rousing stories about what athletes go through to win laurels.

In the mother and daughter case, Ronke Olarinoye had quit weightlifting for about 11 years, making her return this year with a gold in the women’s 45kg snatch while her 15-year-old daughter, Florence Olarinoye, in her second NSF, upgraded from bronze to silver in the women’s 59kg clean and jerk.

Football final in Abeokuta

All the football matches of the 2024 NSF were scheduled to be played at the Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne.

Perhaps triggered by the thought of having a new artificial turf at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena in Abeokuta, the organisers announced the venue change and it proved to be a masterstroke.

After Team Delta had beaten the Invited Junior Athletes in a dramatic penalty shootout in the women’s final, Team Ogun and Team Kwara stepped onto the pitch in front of a packed 10,000-capacity stadium, which also had Governor Dapo Abiodun in attendance.

The final match produced five goals, four of them in the first half as Team Ogun capped off an electrifying night with a 4-1 win.

No real-time medals table update

Over time, a major gap in digital infrastructure has made it difficult to have real-time game updates and medal table updates at the National Sports Festival. Although Gateway Games 2024 took the step to solve the problem, the result still left a lot to be desired in the 21st century.

With a dedicated website and a mobile application, the medals table was usually updated at least twice a day, but they were mostly in retrospect, as many states would have reported their medal count before it reflected on the medals table, almost 24 hours later.

Understandably, the medals padding that rocked the 2022 edition in Delta State put the MOC on its toes, and journalists were also advised to run only with the official medals count.

Eventually, hosts Ogun State were accused of the same thing, after they surged from third to second on the final medals table, no thanks to the lateness of events, even while the closing ceremony was on.

Commuting and competing

One of the easy pointers to some below-par performers from athletes was the distance they had to cover by road from the games village at Babcock University, Ilishan-Remo, to the various venues of events, especially in Abeokuta.

Although the journey is barely an hour and a half, they have to beat the time by waking up very early in the morning to get to the venues of their events before 9:00 am, and there was no guarantee of returning to their hostels by 9:00 pm as most games find it difficult to even end by 6:00 pm.

 That punishing routine left the athletes with less than 12 hours to themselves, having shared the other 12 hours between commuting and competing.

Biased officiating

Different coaches, particularly in ball games voiced concerns about biased refereeing, especially in favour of the hosts, Ogun. According to the coaches, coming up against the hosts was a nightmare, due to the intimidating crowd and perceived bias towards them by the referees.

Rivers State women’s volleyball coach, Ibrahim Adamu, didn’t mince words when his team lost a game against the hosts in the group phase.

“Playing the hosts wasn’t easy, and they still played well. I keep telling people, the syndrome of hosting and winning must stop. They played well. The officiating was superb in the first three sets, but after that, I don’t know what happened. With a senior and international ref, I expected something better.”

It wasn’t just about ball games. Allegations of unfair officiating rang across the venues; from the boxing ring to the mats of martial arts.

No Torch of Unity during the opening ceremony

A key traditional element of the opening ceremony was missing. The opening ceremony of the games ended without the Torch of Unity being lit at the MKO Abiola Sports Arena.

Lighting the torch is like a ritual to mark the commencement of the games. From what our correspondent gathered, the ceremony was supposed to be performed by six legendary athletes, representing the six geo-political zones of the country. British-Nigerian boxer, Anthony Joshua was named as the final torch bearer that ought to light the cauldron.

After the opening ceremony, the cauldron was lit on two occasions; during the men’s football final and the closing ceremony.

Blackout during the men’s 10,000 final

Anyone could say blackouts in stadiums are not new, but what people usually forget is that it is usually bad news, especially when it happens in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, the Gateway Games 2024 wasn’t spared as the MKO Abiola Sports Arena was thrown into darkness midway through the men’s 10,000m final on Saturday, May 24.

Plateau State’s Francis James won the race in a time of 30:36:50, but the long-distance specialist said that the unexpected power outage during the final significantly disrupted his rhythm and denied him a chance to clock a much faster time.

Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko, blamed the power outage on a technical glitch.

Protests of unpaid allowances rock hosts

Perhaps because of Governor Abiodun’s promise and their apparent affluence during the games, seeing a disgruntled Ogun State athlete was a wild dream. But the fate of the hosts took an unexpected turn on the penultimate day of the sports festival when their athletes locked down the games village in protest.

The athletes claimed the state was yet to pay them their camp allowance, thereby blocking the gates of the games village for over seven hours, forcing events to start late and run into the night.

They ended the protest after confirming the receipt of the sum of N50,000 that was promised to them by Governor Dapo Abiodun as well as N140,000 as their festival allowance – although they insisted that the allowance ought to be N210,000, calculated at N15,000 per day over 14 days.