14-year-old student wins swimming medal for Lagos

Team Edo is gradually gathering momentum at the ongoing 22nd National Sports Festival in Abeokuta, after recording its biggest win in the cricket event at the weekend.
 
But the major focus yesterday was on 14-year-old Aidan Dumuje-Abili, a JSS3 student of Grange School, Lagos, who won a silver medal in the men’s 100m backstroke at the swimming event.
 
Team Edo’s men’s and women’s teams powered to gold in both T20 events at the cricket oval. The women’s team successfully defended their festival title, beating Lagos State by eight wickets in the final, just as the men’s team replicated the same scoreline, dethroning Kaduna State, by eight wickets.
 
The medal sweep began with the women’s final in the morning at the first oval of the MKO Abiola Sports Complex, where they restricted Lagos to 52 runs for the loss of 10 wickets in 19.3 overs.
 
Led by Female Yellow Greens captain, Favour Eseigbe, the star-studded Edo team needed just 10 overs to complete the chase, reaching the target of 53 runs for just two wickets.
 
The men’s final also saw former champions, Team Kaduna bat first, but they couldn’t post more than 72/10 in 19 overs. Like their women’s team, Team Edo men required just nine overs to post the target of 73 runs, losing just two wickets in the process to dethrone their opponents.
 
In the third-place playoffs of both the male and female events, Ogun State’s hope of securing a consolation bronze medal was dashed, losing 12 runs against Akwa Ibom in the women’s third-place match, while Oyo State also beat host, Ogun, by 10 wickets in the men’s game.
 
Meanwhile, yesterday’s feat was the first senior national medal for Dumuje-Abili, who competed for the Invited Junior Athletes (IJA) team, getting to the line in a time of 1:04.15 to finish on the podium.
 
Kolade Otunla (Ogun State) won the gold medal with a time of 1:02.41s, while Duke Enyekamime (Delta State) settled for the Bronze medal in 1:04.70.