The recently concluded 17th National Sports Festival, Garden City Games 2011 may have come and gone but the gains and impression it created will remain evergreen in the consciousness of many. States that participated in the Games have been counting their gains and losses.

While the outcome of the fiesta was a cause for joy to some states, some others whose performances did not reflect the huge investments their states made on their teams are counting their losses.

One of the states that had a strong showing on the medals table was Oyo State. Team Oyo clinched the 7th position.

In a chat with Kate Obodo, chairman of the state's Football Association who doubles as the state's Director of Education and Social Services, Otumba James Odeniran reflects on the performance of Team Oyo Excerpts.

How would you rate Rivers State on the Sports Festival?

I will rate them high in the organizational aspect of this year's festival. The state raised the bar by organising the best ever opening ceremony in the history of the festival, the ceremony was colourful and some have said it was like the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, same with the closing ceremony. Although there were some problems encountered in the event, for instance issues like accommodation and the distances of venues for the competition. All the same it was a good one, we thank God that the event has come and gone.

On our own part, I thank God for the kind of governor we have in Oyo State. We have a listening governor, who gave us the needed support in the festival. We really prepared very well for the festival, but unfortunately it appeared that we fell short of our expectations. At the initial stage we wanted to finish among the top three or so, but we thank God for the position we got. In Football, the players did their best but their best was not good enough. They played so many matches, won some and lost some . Unfortunately, we could not reach the group stage.

I must confess that the position which we got in the festival was not expected, following the way we prepared. Seventh is a tremendous position. But we want to assure that come next festival in Lagos, we are going to win the trophy.

Did Team Rivers win the festival because they were the hosts?

Compared to other sports organized, I think Rivers State did very well in the organization of the event, I am not saying because they are the host, you may be the host and you may not win. They went the extra mile because they were the hosts. I mean they went extra-mile to prepare for that festival.

Though they have their own faults, especially in the area of accommodation, which was poorly arranged. This of course destabilized some of the contingents for the event, but I thank God it did not affect Oyo State. There were some states, that had accommodation problem, but it was later rectified.

Nigeria is still developing and we are just starting. I know we will get there. Like I said earlier, the host did their best in hosting the festival but there were problems of accommodation. For the athletes, the distant venues may have affected their performances. The venues were too far from where the athletes lived and before they could travel from their hostels to the venues the events were over. Some became tired and it affected their performances. This is one area the next host (Lagos) should put into consideration so as not to repeat the mistakes of the organisers of the Garden City Games.

Of course yes. One of the aims of the Sports Festival is the identification of talents for further development. In getting that, the athletes in question have to be from the amateur level and budding athletes, because the competition is to discover talents. A festival like the National Sports Festival is to tap raw talents for future purposes. But I did not see much of that at the festival.

But I thank God we went with some of our amateur athletes and they really made us proud despite our position. The event exposed so many talents for us, this will prepare them ahead of the next festival in Lagos.

Is it possible for the the NSC to have a fixed date for the festival especially when you consider the numerous postponements the last festival suffered?
It is possible for them to have a fixed date for the next sports festival , because the date for the last festival suffered so many postponements. The problem is not from the organizers.

The several postponements were due to unexpected circumstances the organisers could not help, that is why it was shifted severally. But I thank God it has come and gone.

Lastly, what advice do you have for those states that discovered talents at the Games?

In Oyo state, we are pace-setters, we have set the pace especially with athletes that were discovered. We will begin to prepare them for the next sports festival.

My advice for states that participated in the festival is that those athletes with exceptional talents should be kept and nurtured for the next Games in Lagos . They should do better than they did in River State.