Ondo State Government on Tuesday promised a handsome financial reward to athletes that win medals at this year’s National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012, holding in Lagos.
Commissioner for Sports and Youth Development in the state, Alhaji Yekini Olanipekun, stated this in an interview with journalists in Akure.
Gold medalists at the last festival in Port-Harcourt went home with N200, 000 each, while silver and bronze medalists got N150, 000 and N100, 000 respectively.
The amount was a hundred percent increase over what the athletes got at the KADA Games in 2009.
Olanipekun said the state government had put in place, necessary machinery to ensure a credible outing for the team at the festival and that the coaches and athletes owe it a duty to do the state proud.
He appealed to the athletes to remember that the festival was a golden opportunity for them to show the world what they are capable of accomplishing on the sports scene, coupled with the prospect of earning multi-million naira sporting contract.