New Medalists To Emerge In Darts

New medal winners are expected to emerge in the Darts events at the 17th National Sports festival 301 category.

A correspondent who monitored proceedings at the event on Wednesday, reports that aside the male defending champion and one of the female bronze medalists at the last Festival in Kaduna-2009, other medal winners are out of contention for honours.

Christopher Amin from Edo who won the gold medal in Kaduna, has qualified for the quarter final stage while Patricia John from Delta, one of the bronze medalists in Kaduna; also qualified for the second round stage of the event.

Bala Makoshi from Kaduna who was the silver medal winner was absent from the competition as a result of ill health, while the two bronze medalists-Sam Gbekele from Oyo and Sola Ibikunle from Ogun were  eliminated from the competition.

In the female event, defending champion Orban Membe from Benue and one of the bronze medalist, Augusta Akunesiobiike from Imo were absent from the competition, while the silver medalist, Esther Udofia from Akwa-Ibom had  been eliminated.

Dr Emmanuel Chom, Technical Director of the Darts Federation of Nigeria, expressed happiness over the development, noting that it portended good tiding for the sport in the country.

“The intensity of the contests and recorded upsets had overridden the problems we experienced before the commencement of the event.

“The giant-killing trend would make the more established players strive to maintain their forms while the upcoming ones would be motivated to perform better,” he said.

Chom noted that the complaints of poor facilities by the athletes would be tackled promptly as the federation and organizers were determined to organize a flawless event.

“We don’t have enough resources to procure new boards for instance but the ones we provided are still of the required standard” he said.

He noted that athletes who complain about the boards were mischievous as the boards still served the purposes they were procured for.

“The athletes who complain about the boards are those who feel they are champions and want to contest on new boards,” he said.

Christopher Amin, the male defending champion in the event said that he was determined to retain his gold medal, to bring glory to his state and boost his rating in the event.