Bolgatanga, Jan. 25, GNA - Upper Stars of Upper East Region beat Schake 04 Stars of Central Region 2-1 in the final of this year's Under-14 Milo soccer Championships.

Upper Stars who were down by a lone goal in the first half gradually warmed themselves into the game and came back strongly in the second half to subdue Schake 04 Stars by scoring two quick goals within four minutes to the end of the match.

In the Under 17 division, Real Republicans of Tamale beat Corners Babies of Kumasi in penalty shoot-out by scoring four of their goals against three to lift the trophy.

Mr. Tettey Aryee, Group Product Manager of Nestle Ghana Limited in an address said his company has spent 440 million cedis to sponsor the 2005 Colts competition, adding that they are now laying more emphasis to the development of the Under 12 and 14 tournaments.

He said that the prizes for the winning teams were Four Million Cedis for the Under 17 and Three Million Cedis for the Under 14 in addition to gold medals, a trophy, Nestle products, Milo T-Shirts, Footballs and Jerseys.

Mr Aryee called on the players to be disciplined in all of their training to achieve results.

Mr. Mahami Salifu, out-going Upper East Regional Minister expressed concern about the use of drugs to enhance their performance and urged the youth to eschew such negative practices.

He called for discipline among sportsmen and women adding that it was better to loose honourably with a disciplined team than to win with the help of performance enhancing drugs, which eventually would bring disgrace to the users and their team.

Mr Mahami appealed to the winners to be humble in their jubilation that it was necessary that the losers accepted defeat honourably and endeavour to identify the causes of their defeat for them to overcome their lapses.

He commended Nestle Ghana Limited for sponsoring of the just ended Under 14 and 17 Colts championships in Bolgatanga and called for more assistance to the Upper East Region to unearth football talents.