Duro Ikhazuagbe
28 October 2008
Lagos — The on-going 9th Police Games tagged Eko 2008 yesterday produced a number of medallists in combat sports like wrestling, karate and boxing with Emmanuel Luke of Zone 1 emerging crowd favourite.
Yesterday at the indoor hall of the National Stadium in Lagos, Luke took the gold in the 66kg class to leave Ohefiamu Ajumo of Zone 6 and Benedict Eke (Zone 9) struggling for the silver and bronze respectively.
But in the 60kg Pumse event of Karate Ruth Omani, Osasu E. and Adebisi Oro smiled to the gold, silver and bronze medals respectively. The story was also a sweet one for the Zone 8 Command in the male karate (kata) by winning the gold. Zone 1 won the silver while Zone 6 and 9 picked bronze medals respectively.
Athletics events of the Games earlier scheduled to begin yesterday were pushed forward till today because of some minor repair works carried out on the tartan tracks of the main bowl. This morning, some of the events scheduled to be concluded include 20km men and women, women pole vault and javelin.
In the afternoon, heats of the 100m men and women are on the cards to begin in addition to the quarter-mile races. Finals of the women's hammer and discuss are also listed for the afternoon.
Speaking on the Games, Assistant Inspector General of Police Olusegun Efunkoya, who is chairman of the Local Organising Committee, (LOC), told THISDAYSports that he was thrilled by the level of commitment exhibited by officers, men and women of the force so far.
"The Games are here to stay. As you can see so far, our officers are doing excellently well in most of the events that are going on now.
I can assure you that in no distant time, the Nigeria Police Force will begin to play major role in our country's sport by contributing top stars to the pool as it used to happen in the past," stressed the Games chief.
The LOC boss while dispelling the fear of any of the commands using mercenaries to win medals, he assured that as a disciplined force, "there can be no such thing. We know ourselves and the infiltration of any of the commands by non serving personnel is unthinkable."
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