With hardly any standard facilities to train and lack of exposure of its athletes, Team Jigawa, made up of 84 athletes and 23 officials, have emerged as one of the surprises of the 18th National Sports Festival.
Indeed, it is a New World — nickname of Jigawa — for the athletes from the North Central state.
The 21-year-old state had never had it so good at the NSF. But on Saturday, Jigawa’s athletes and officials were in a jubilant mood singing and dancing after having amassed an ‘unbelievable’ three gold and six silver medals at this year’s edition of the sports showpiece. They stole the show at their University of Lagos camp as everyone watched their wild celebrations.
Their performance placed them in 18th position on the medal table but the source of their celebration was deserved: they had just recorded one of their best ever performances at the festival.
For a team that hardly won medals in past editions, it was a mean feat. At the last edition in Port Harcourt, they recorded their worst outing, placing a distant 29th with just one gold, two silver and five bronze medals.
At Gateway 2006, they were 27th while at Benue 1996 and Imo 1998, they finished 24th and 22nd respectively.
Incidentally, Jigawa, created out of the old Kano State in 1991, recorded their best outing that same year, placing 13th with 13 gold, 17 silver and 20 bronze medals.
But they had to wait for another 21 years to celebrate a top 20 finish at the festival with a team made up of mainly rookies — most of their athletes were participating at the event for the first time. In fact, they ended the games as the 6th best northern state, just behind Plateau, Kano, Federal Capital Territory, Niger and Nasarawa, in that order.
However, the underdogs would rather celebrate than grant interviews. “We are just happy to have created an impression at the festival,” a female athlete from the state, who was convinced to talk by an official, said.
“We didn’t know that we could get this far because of states like Delta, Edo, Lagos and Rivers. Jigawa doesn’t have money for us to embark on training tours or entice athletes from other states. We were all discovered and groomed at home (Jigawa).
“But we had a decent preparation, our governor encouraged us and we were determined to come out among the best 20 sports states in Nigeria. It is not an easy feat.”
It was learnt that the athletes were camped in various areas of the states. The state’s sports ministry spearheaded the drive for talents by deploying coaches to comb the state for young athletes.
The discovered athletes were then relocated to Dutse, the state’s capital, under the training of the state’s coaches.
The joy of a top official of the team is not in the nine medals won at Eko 2012, but in the prospects of Team Jigawa at future festivals.
He said, “Now our athletes can hold their heads high; they have done very well. Most of them have just attended their first festival. They are still very young and will become heroes of the festival in future competitions.
“If the state government continues with its support of sports, we will soon be competing at the same level with states like Delta and Edo.”
An athlete, who pleaded anonymity, called on the state government to reward the state’s contingent after the games, saying it would encourage youths in Jigawa to take sports as a career.
He said, “We gave our best for the state, so we should be rewarded by the state. It will also encourage youths in Jigawa to become sportsmen and women, because their hard work will not be in vain. I have a lot of friends who are good in sports but they didn’t join us because they don’t believe sports will take them anywhere.”