BY CHRISTIAN EZE
TEAM Delta, the host team for the 2025 9th National Youth Games entered Camp on Sunday August 17, 2025, for most of the events.
The camping of athletes and their coaches has been considered very necessary as the defending champion of the title having won the last edition with amazing gold medal difference in same venue last year.
The Delta State Sports Commission has been very committed to the Youth Games for many reasons beyond the medals. It has been a good source of encouragement to young athletes who eventually take over from the senior ones in no distant time. The State has been using the sporting engagement to take youths off the streets for more reasonable engagements that helps build the society through their earnings.
Being the host State. Delta will not be participating in the Zonal Elimination for the ball games comprising basketball, Beach Volleyball, Football, handball, volleyball.
These five games will be added grace for the hosting State because they will have the privilege to add both male and female teams in these ball games. The implication is that about ten additional teams will be added to the host team which is an added advantage if properly utilized as it has been observed that hardly has any team been able to secure ten slots in the Zonal encounter because every State at the elimination competition, would want to secure at least two of the slots of the ball games.
The camping of athletes enables coaches create avenue to build and fortify the team with more skills inculcate more effective winning skills and a more determined result oriented spirit.
The technical crews of each events and other members of the various sections are busy with the drive of winning. They gather to encourage themselves for victory as a team not as individual talents because being individually talented would not give the resounding glory that will give the colorful peacock display of widely spread wings in the summer.
The drive is open and the gold medals are no longer products of a particular event but multifaceted to ensure that no stone is left unturned in the pursuit of medal glory across the entire number of events that the state is participating in at the competition.
The athletics events that are widely spread from the jumps to the throws as well as the sprinting strengths of both short and long distance races.
The ball games alongside the world of tennis families and the Combat sports like Kung Fu, Karate and kickboxing including Judo and Taekwondo as well as boxing and wrestling.
The Swimming events are medal loaded as there are numerous different events in aquatic sports and any state that is able to dominate the game convincingly, would have good number of precious medals in her kitty.
The Team Delta is participating in many other sports events outside the ones listed above and great will be the exploit if the best of the options are put into the games proper.
Badminton is a regular sport for Delta youths and same can be said of Chess and Scrabble and with the ongoing camping, the team appears set to make it more convincing that the glory will not depart from the king’s court nor will the onyx be missing at the hour of its relevance.
The vision of the Team Delta is widely written in the book of Victors and it is to win again and again hence the started the camping under closed door arrangement before the Open declaration.
