By Femi Atolagbe
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The General Manager, Ondo State Sports Council, Wande Fabuluje has said that more medals are being expected to increase the medal haul of the state in the ongoing 19th National Sports Festival in Abuja.

Fabuluje, who made the promise yesterday in Abuja, expressed satisfaction on the performance of the state athletes in the festival, so far.

Ondo state has clinched five gold, one silver and five bronze medals.

Three athletes representing the state won two more gold medals in field, and para-swimming events to increase the state total medals won so far to eleven.

Powell Ofoyeju defeated other competitors to win gold in the 100 Metres Breast Stroke para-swimming.

Boluwatife Bukola triumphed in the 100m Women event with a gold medal in 11.45seconds by defeating Akwa Iboms Peace Uko, who crossed the line with the time of 11.52s and Joy Gabriel of Delta with 11.53s.

Fabuluje said the athletes had justified the confidence reposed in them by the state government.

“I am proud of these youngsters. They are doing us proud. We will win more medals in Volleyball and wrestling, in semi final stage,” he said.

He appealed to the athletes whose competitions have been rounded-off to stay behind and support those still competing

Meanwhile Ondo State men’s volleyball team and their counterparts from Plateau on Thursday advanced to the final of the volleyball event of the 19th National Sports Festival in Abuja.

Ondo State team, at the volleyball court of package B of the Abuja National Stadium, won the second semi-final game of the day 3-1.

Plateau had in the first match of the semi-finals defeated Anambra 3-2 in a keenly contested encounter.

The Head Coach of Ondo State Volleyball team, Adeniyi Adekalu, told newsmen after the match that his team was going all out for gold medal in the event.

Adekalu said the Rivers team were not new to his team, having met them at several occasions and different competitions.

He noted that he was expecting nothing less than victory in their final match against Plateau on Friday.

“I give glory to almighty God because without him, no one will achieve anything, and apart from that, this is not a new team to us, we have been meeting ourselves.

“We still met three weeks ago in one championship in Port Harcourt and we defeated them 3-1, so we know ourselves and how to approach our games.

“We expect victory in the final against Plateau; we defeated them 3-1 when we met at the group stage, even though we don’t want to bother that we had defeated them before.

“We still want to work harder because they may come up with another strategy, we are always ready for whatever game plan they want to use,” he said.