By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Southern part of Nigeria was very dominant in the athletic events as the South East, South South and South West swept away all the medals in the athletic events of the just concluded National Principals Cup in Abuja.
Also, the Northern region dominated football event as they came first and second respectively to win Gold and Silver trophies while South East finished third in the soccer event.
But it was South South geopolitical zone that showed class in the Boys and Girls relay events in the competition amongst the Nigerian secondary school children. They took first position in the 4×100m and 4×400m Boys and Girls.
South South also cleared the Mixed 4×100m race and High Jump event.
However, South East showed class in the Short and Middle distance races with Golden Girls, Jane Onyeneho, Chidinma Agu and Grace Oshiokpu winning 12 medals amongst themselves.
While Imo state-born budding sprinter, Onyeneho won Gold medal in the 100m dash, she also raked in three Silver medals in Girls 4× 100m relay; Girls 4× 400m relay and Mixed 4× 100m relay.
Another South East representative and Imo state athlete, Agu easily won the Girls 400m race to pick Gold medal just she also won three Silver medals in Girls 4×100m relay, 4×400m relay and Mixed 4×100m relay respectively.
The third South East athlete who scooped four medals is Oshiokpu. She won Gold medal in High Jump and three Silver medals in Girls 4×100m relay, 4×400m relay and Mixed 4×100m.
Commenting on the overall performance of the South East contingent in the competition, Coach Marcarus Agu of Imo State Sports Council, Owerri, who coached both the athletics and football teams expressed his joy that his athletes did extremely well in the competition inspite the challenges they faced.
According to him the athletes would have performed better than they did in the competition if proper preparation was done to prepare the team.
He therefore praised the organisers but advised that they improve in the welfare of the athletes in the subsequent editions.
The Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare was on hand to hand out medals to the winners and also presented trophy to the winners of the football event, FOSLA Academy, Abuja who represented North Central geopolitical zone.
