Team Anambra on Saturday concluded its outing at the ninth National Youth Games in Asaba, Delta State, with 14 medals.

The medals include four gold, two silver and eight bronze.

The 2025 NYG ended with an elaborate closing ceremony at the Stephen Keshi stadium on Saturday.

Chairman, Anambra State Sports Development Commission, Patrick-Estate Onyedum, expressed satisfaction with the performance of his team even though it fell short of last edition.

Recall that Anambra State finished eighth place on the overall medals table at the last edition, winning 26 medals which comprised nine gold, nine silver, and eight bronze.

Mr Onyedum said NYG was a development programme which was largely for talent discovery and not medal accumulation.

According to him, Anambra State is proud of her athletes because they are within the age range and can defend their victories.

Mr Onyedum appreciated the state governor, Chukwuma Soludo, for developing sports at the grassroots level through the reintroduction of school sports.

He reiterated his disapproval for using overage athletes in age group competitions and called on the National Sports Commission and Sports Federation to adopt stringent measures to address the problem.

He said, “It is quite unfortunate; this is supposed to be a competition for children of 15 years old and below, but I presented a medal to a young man with a moustache, how can a 15 years old boy grow beards. I expected that as we progress, we will be getting it right, but it is sad that there is either no mechanism to control it, or the organisers are not interested. People go as far as changing their national identification number. Conceiving and implementing this youth games is the best thing that has happened to sports development in Nigeria but age falsification and desperation to win is defeating the purpose.’’

Anambra State attended the games with 145 contingent, without any team event. 

(NAN)