By Ben Efe 23-5-2025
The athletics events of the 22nd National Sports Festival began Friday morning with the men and women walk race.
Despite an early morning rain storm the event went on schedule and luckily the last of the walkers were just coming in when the skies began to weep profusely.
In the women’s 10km walk race experienced Fadekemi Erinle coming back to track and field after having a baby, clinched the gold with a time of 49.35.55 secs, Joy Davis with 56.47.06secs for the silver, while Nalop Shaglag settled for bronze with 58.09.83secs
In the men’s category Gbenga Samuel of Ogun State was the winner with 50.07.96. Noah Isaiah of Oyo won silver with 50.30.19 and Bamidele Olusegun of Edo was third with 51.22.92secs.
“We were supposed to do 20km but because of the hilly nature of Abeokuta we had to reduce the distance,” said one of the officials.
“Some of the athletes in the event are just starting and that explains why the men are having a similar time with the women.”