On Thursday at the Event Centre, Okpanam in Asaba, Delta state, Israel Makinde earned Borno state’s only gold medal at the 21st National Sports Festival tournament.
Makinde defeated Azeez Tijani of Bayelsa to win the gold medal in the 48 kg boxing division after receiving a perfect 5-0 rating from all the judges.
The Lagos indigene expressed his pleasure in earning Borno’s lone gold medal in an interview with our correspondent after the fight.
“I feel better than I did this morning because I am making them proud, I have won the gold now so they will be proud of boxing. I wanted to win the gold medal for them and for myself because I have been training for this for a long time.
“At Edo 2021, I won the gold medal in this same category, and I am glad I was able to defend the medal again. I have been watching his fights and studying him since the tournament started and I noticed that he is also a very good fighter seeing as he got to the final too so I have to be extraordinarily careful and take my shots as far as I can. The fight was a bit tough because when you meet a good boxer, you can see they are trying to predict your moves,” he said.
Borno earned three bronze medals and one gold medal in the boxing event, making up more than half of the state’s total medal haul of six, made up of one gold and five bronze medals.
