Team Delta on Thursday won 3 gold medals in swimming at the National Sports Festival, to continue their dominance. It was a feisty battle between Team Delta and Bayelsa, who won 2 gold medals as Team Kano also claimed their first gold medal at the event.

In 800m freestyle men, Opute Clinton emerged winner in 9m:34s:53 to set a new national and festival record. Previous record was set by Samson Opuakpo in 2006. Dino Ebarakumo (Bayelsa) finished in 9m:52s:62 to claim silver, with Edo’s Seleakpobo Israel winning bronze, after finishing 3rd in 9m:56s:16.

In 100m backstroke women, Delta’s Timipamere Akiayefa won with 1m:14:93, defeating Edo and Bayelsa to win gold. Similarly, the quartet of Timipame-Ere Akiayef, Nmor Evelyn, Okolugbo Chinonye and Okpochini Deborah won gold for Team Delta with a time of 4m:20s:98.

In 400m freestyle women, Ifiezegbe Gagbe of Bayelsa finished in 5m:04s:30, a new festival record, as she won the gold medal ahead of Team Delta’s Okpochini Deborah and Cross River’s Dorcas Oka, who both finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Breaking the dominance of Delta and Bayelsa was Team Kano’s Collins Obi, who set a new festival record of 53s:92, which bettered the initial record of 54s:33 held by Ifeakachukwu Nmor of Delta State in 2018 in 100m freestyle men.

SOURCE: https://punchng.com/nsf-delta-kano-set-national-festival-records/?utm_source=auto-read-also&utm_medium=web