Ogun government yesterday paid a total of N1.2m to all its medal winners at the 18th National Sports Festival, tagged "Eko 2012", concluded on Sunday in Lagos.

The gesture was in fulfilment of its pledge to Team Ogun before the Games that medal winners will be rewarded on return. The 15 gold medallists got N30, 000 each, amounting to N450, 000, while 22 silver medalists were rewarded N20, 000 each, totalling N440, 000.

The 31 bronze medalists were awarded N10, 000 each which summed up to N310, 000. The Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Olugbenga Otenuga, said the gesture was a way of thanking the athletes for doing the state proud. Otenuga said it was also to encourage others to make effort to benefit from such gesture in the nearest future.

He praised the athletes for giving their best and noted that many of them were grassroots athletes discovered during the recent State Grassroots Games. "They competed brilliantly against professionals even though they are fairly new in the arena," he said.

Ogun State came 7th on the medals table with 15 gold, 22 silver and 31 bronze medals.