It’s been 5 thrilling weeks of non-stop sporting action in the Nigeria Bankers Games 2016.
The indoor events of Chess, Scrabble and Table Tennis was concluded at the DBI Indoor Pavilion on Saturday, 5th October 2016; while new winners emerged, a few old war horses continued to set the strides.
In the Chess event, Union Bank who are making a comeback to the games won gold in the men’s category while UBA won female gold. The Fidelity Bank ladies took silver and bronze to round up the podium for female chess while First Bank and Ecobank who silver and bronze in a very keenly contested men’s event.
In scrabble, the very talented Ajani Adebowale of Sterling Bank was denied Gold by Stanbic IBTC’s Tokunbo Olowu who is making his first appearance in the games, Ajani had to settle for Silver. Kesanmi Olofolani won bronze of UBA.
In the men’s Table Tennis Event, there was no change of guard as the trio of Frederick Rekuoya of Sterling Bank, Solomon Idowu and Femi Ayeni of First Bank once again continued their 5 year old dominance of the ping pong event. Akinwale Omotoye on his debut won Bronze for FCMB.
In the female table Tennis, Fidelity Bank emerged victorious through Judith Achonye who also won gold last season. She beat ‘compatriot’ Olayemi Okam who had to settle for Silver while the duo of Afolabi Jane also of Fidelity Bank and Omolola Olatunji of Ecobank did well enough to win bronze.
The doubles event was a mixture of the singles story as First Bank won Gold for the men singles while Fidelity Bank won Gold in the female event.
The Tennis event was also concluded at the Lawn Tennis Club courts at Lagos Island. Once again, as predicted, Golden Girl Ogechi Iheanacho won 2 gold medals in the singles and doubles event.
There was however a bit of a twist in the men’s finals as Lateef Aliu who was gunning for his first Gold medal in the singles event had to once again settle for Silver as he was not able to compete in the final game. Union Bank thus won Gold in the singles and Ecobank won Gold in the doubles event.
The Athletics event kicked off on Saturday, 5th October 2016 at the NPA Medical Centre, Surulere, where both male and female counterparts held it down in 100m, 200m & 4x100m event.
The athletics event witnessed a massive turnout of athletes including sprinters – Jerry Asuzu of Fidelity Bank, Chigozie Alaekwe of Sterling Bank and surprise gold medallist from last season, UBA’s Lambo Seun.
And so it was that this 3 individuals again were podium finishers in the 100m; Jerry Asuzu retook the gold he last won in 2014, while Lambo Seun and Chigozie Alaekwe came in second and third respectively. The ladies event witnessed another change of guard, last season, Ann Okafor emerged as a possible long term replacement for the veteran Queen of the tracks, Vivian Ezenwoko; however, Anyanwu Angela appeared this season to win gold in both 100 and 200m. Ajibola Mary of Ecobank and Naomi Ekpelle of Stanbic IBTC Bank both won silver in the 100m and 200m respectively.
In the mens 200m event, Jerry Asuzu once again reigned supreme to win his second gold medal while Igbokwe Kelechi of UBA won Silver and Okeowo Adebayo of Fidelity Bank won bronze.
The Semi-Final
The semi-final witnessed two thrilling football matches.
The first match of the day saw 2015 champions, Fidelity Bank take on 5 time champions, UBA, with both sides fighting for a place in the 2016 final. The game started in a fierce mode when Fidelity stormed into an early lead through Dimeji Oyefeso goal in the 2nd minutes. Another strike by Kazim Lamidi in the 14th minutes put Fidelity bank two goals ahead in the first half. At the resumption of play, UBA played with a renewed vigor and looked determined on the counter, but the Fidelity bank defence that is yet to concede a single goal this tournament stood unbreakable and determined. Salisu Abubakar was the man of the match from Fidelity. The two first half goals was enough to put Fidelity through to the second consecutive Final of the Nigeria Bankers Games.
The second match of the day was between 2015 finalist, First Bank and the Sterling Jets of Sterling bank. This is one match that would have messed up any bookmaker’s prediction because not only was the competition fierce, it was balanced and both teams gave as much as they got. At the end the match was decided by a lone penalty goal by First Bank. First Bank have thus also qualified for their second consecutive NBG Football finals.
Following the conclusion of the other events and the finalists for football known, here is the medals table at a glance. It is safe to say that Fidelity Bank has once again emerged as the Overall Champions of the NBG 2016.
Get ready for the football finals!
The finals ceremony will take place on Sunday 13th November, 2016 at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.
Don’t forget to follow the event updates via Twitter by following @mediavisionltd and tweeting with the hashtag- #NBG2016.
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