PREPARATION holds the key to success. This aptly describes the feat achieved by Cross River at the just concluded 4th National School Sports Festival held at U J Esuene Stadium in Calabar.The host team swept the defending champion, Team Lagos off their feet in the overall medals' table with Cross River amassing 114 gold medals to beat Lagos to second place.Before the conclusion of the athletics event, Lagos was ahead in the medals' table but their dominance was halted with Cross River winning over 43 gold medals out of the 67 in the athletics event, while Lagos was nowhere among the top five teams in athletics as it settled for seventh place in the event.The Guardian however, leant that the Cross River put lot of efforts into the build up to the championship as the team was camped for three months in readiness for the multi-sports tournament. Also the team was handled by American athletics legend, Lee Evans as well as some formidable coaches in the state.From track to field events, the Cross River team showed it class with 14-year-old Koyonor Ebri Obeten being among the athletes that made the state with two gold medals.Obeten, who disclosed that her intention was to make to the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, dominated the junior girls' long and high jump events.Also, 17-year-old Melody Bassey, who claimed gold in the senior boys' shot put event, told The Guardian that he was happy the efforts of their coaches were justified with the success recorded in the athletics event.'I am happy for the entire team because we really worked for the victory and this is a result of three months extensive training. That we won athletics was not the main thing but becoming the overall champion is the climax for us. We thank the Governor, Liyel Imoke for his unflinching support to sports and we hope to continue with this for the 2014 National Sports Festival to be hosted by Cross River,' Bassey said.To come second overall, Team Lagos won 89 gold medals while the 2008 champion, Team Ondo picked 62 gold medals to finish third overall on the medals' table.
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