By Victor Kanayo
A 17-year-old Edo cyclist, Osaretin Godwin, has stirred an unexpected upset after she beat Nigeria’s first cycling Olympian, Ese Ukpeseraye, in the women’s 200m sprint final at the ongoing National Sports Festival (NSF) in Ogun State.
Team Edo has continued to maintain its consistency in daily harvest of gold and silver in the ongoing biennial competition.
Esther Onyema also showed her raw strength to win gold in the 55kg para-powerlifting game for her state.
Ride To Glory
In the 200m sprint cycling event, the Edo cycling revelation, Osaretin, put up a brilliant performance with resilience and a spectacular finish as she powered past Oyo and Rivers States’ athletes respectively to emerge the best rider.
Godwin beat Ukpeseraye to second place in the race for a semi-final ticket in the 200m sprint on her way to the final in the women’s category of the game.
Riding together in one of the heats, Godwin came first ahead of Ukpeseraye, to the surprise of most cyclists, who cheered the teenager on as she crossed the finish line to victory.
Godwin, in the last National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State, participated as one of the junior cyclists Edo State had introduced into the sport, and she was able to rub shoulders with the senior girls but lost out to the much more experienced riders like Ukpeseraye, who represented Delta State then, and Oyo State’s top rider, Joke Durogbade.
Isa Momoh also won bronze in the 200m (men’s) sprint event.
In the para-powerlifting, Team Edo won one silver and two bronze medals in addition to Esther Onyema’s gold.
Meanwhile, Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers are leading the table at the NSF as more states battle for relevance.
