The 8th National Youth Games, tagged Asaba 2024, has ended with Team Osun finishing 29th, failing to secure any gold medal. 

In the competition which ended Thursday, Team Delta retained its first position with 98 medals from 41 gold, 27 silver and 30 bronze medals.

Team Lagos finished second on the table with a total haul of 62 medals comprising 25 gold, 19 silver and 18 bronze. Oyo State placed sixth with 10 gold, 6 silver and 9 bronze for a total of 25 medals while Ogun came 10th with 25 medals (6 gold).

The contingent from Ondo clinched the 11th position on the ladder with 15 medals (5 gold) and Ekiti with 9 medals to top Osun which struggled to win 3 silver and 2 bronze and thereby emerging the worst participating team from the South-west of the country.  

Prior to commencement of the sports fiesta, the athletes alongside their officials had raised concerns about the lip service paid to their welfare by the Osun State Government. 

Of note was the allegation about the reduction in allowances due to the delegation.

In reaction, the Osun State Sports Council reportedly described the reduction as "necessary considering the State's financial challenges."

Commenting on the poor outing, a sports enthusiast, Basiru Olagunju, condemned the state government, especially the state deputy governor who doubles as Commissioner for Sports, Mr Kola Adewusi, for starving the participants from Osun the needed resources and tools to make them excel at this year's Games.

According to Olagunju, "I know a couple of the Osun athletes from a close range. I know the level of commitment they put into training and preparing for the sports festival, but unfortunately, the state government failed them at the point of need. I learnt some of the athletes were given N500 feeding allowance per day. That was ridiculous. Anyway, it is what the state courted they got. If you fail to plan, you have definitely planned to fail. I wish the innocent athletes and trainers all the best in future."

Of the N6.3bn allocated to both ministry of youth affairs and ministry of sports in the 2024 budget of the state, only N661m, representing merely 13.5% of the 2024 estimate, had been released as of June ( half of the year).

The state governor, Ademola Adeleke, has often been criticized for spending whooping N30bn for his office in less than two years, particularly for the insensitive purchase of 20 units of 2023 Landruiser Jeep valued at N3bn, at a time he could not adequately fund sports and youth-related programmes.