Akwa Ibom picks first gold medal at N YG

The ongoing National Youth Games (NYG) in Ilorin, Kwara state has been cast in history as Ubong Bassey of Team Akwa Ibom won the first gold medal in Judo.
Ubong defeated Uwanne Chukwuemeka of Delta in the final of the 36kg boys in Judo. In the same weight category, Chidiebube Ogunedo (Delta) and Shawn Julius (Bayelsa) won bronze medal.
Boluwatife Akinsola of Ekiti state won gold medal in the 32kg girls category Judo.
Newlucky Job of Bayelsa and Favour Oyemidu from Rivers state won silver and bronze respectively while Miracle Ezealo of Bayelsa also settled for bronze medal.
In wrestling Bayelsa, Sokoto won gold in 54kg women and 42kg girls respectively.
Helen Peter came second as she won silver for Delta state while Rivers and Lagos claimed the two bronze medals available in the 42kg category.
Akwa Ibom also won bronze in wrestling.
At the end of activities on the first day, Akwa Ibom is on top of the medals table with one gold and one bronze medal closely followed by Ekiti state with one gold only, while Delta state is in the third position with one silver and bronze medals.
Bayelsa is in fourth position with one silver and bronze.
Team FCT is hopeful of winning medals in gymnastics as two athletes are already in the final which will be decided yesterday.
It would be recalled that the last edition was won by Delta which flew away with the top ranking on the medals table last year with 21 gold, 16 silver and 23 bronze medals, Akwa Ibom came second with 16 gold, 15 silver and 15 bronze.
Yobe, Taraba and Jigsaw are the only three states without medals last year in the 2017 edition of the National Youth Games (NYG).