As the attention of the world turns to Ghana, the host nation for the 13th edition of the African Games, Team Nigeria is poised to unleash 358 immensely talented and motivated young athletes who will fight for podium finishes at the ‘African Olympics’.
Nigeria has been to every edition of the games and the one which officially commenced yesterday is the 13th appearance of Team Nigeria at the multi-sporting event which is held every four years and organized by the African Union (AU) with the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (ANOCA) and the Association of African Sports Confederations (AASC).
In the past 12 appearances, Team Nigeria has garnered a total of 1,326 medals (470 gold, 428 silver and 428 bronze) to place second behind Egypt in the number of medals won by countries at the games.
However, Nigeria has emerged champions on only one occasion and that was when the country hosted the African Games in 2003 in Abuja. Benefitting from home advantage, Team Nigeria for the first time topped the table with 85 gold, 90 silver and 65 bronze for a total of 240 medals.
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After the home victory, Team Nigeria has continued to play second fiddle to the most successful nation Egypt who have won the games seven times and South Africa, four times winners of the ‘African Olympics’. At Algiers 2007, Team Nigeria garnered 50 gold, 55 silver and 54 bronze to finish fifth behind Egypt, Algeria, South Africa and Ethiopia.
Team Nigeria then finished third when Mozambique hosted the games in 2011 after the contingent won 31 gold, 28 silver and 39 bronze medals and at the 2015 games in Congo Brazzaville, Team Nigeria finished second behind Egypt with a total of 41 gold, 41 silver and 37 bronze medals.
At the last edition in Rabat, Morocco, Team Nigeria finished as runners up again behind Egypt with 46 gold, 33 silver and 48 bronze. This means after 2003, Team Nigeria managed to scoop 503 medals in four appearances.
Therefore, following back-to-back runners up position at the games, Team Nigeria is aiming to go a step further by topping the table for the second time in Ghana. However, Egypt and South Africa are still major threats to Nigeria’s ambition.
At the 2024 games, Nigeria is featuring athletes in 25 events namely arm wrestling (15 athletes), athletics (50), badminton (12) basketball 3 x 3 (4 female), beach Volleyball (4), boxing (11), chess (4), cricket (15), cycling (12), hockey (32), football (40), handball (14), judo (10), karate (14), mixed martial arts (4) and rugby (16).
Others are scrabble (8), swimming (4), table tennis (10), taekwondo (14), tennis (8), triathlon (4), volleyball (24), weightlifting (12) and wrestling (14) for a total of 358 athletes that are representing the nation at the games.
Interestingly, apart from the task of winning medals for Nigeria at the games, some of the athletes will also be vying for tickets to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. This is because eight out of the 29 events on offer in Ghana are serving as Olympic qualifiers. Thus, Nigerian athletes in athletics, badminton, cycling, boxing, swimming, table tennis, triathlon and wrestling will fancy their chances of winning medals at the games and also qualifying for Paris 2024.
Before the contingent jetted out to Ghana for the games, Team Nigeria went into closed camping in five states across the country. According to the Sports Ministry, camping sites were set up based on availability of the required training facilities. For instance, Abuja, the Federal Capital city, housed athletics, arm-wrestling, badminton, baseball, football, hockey, rugby, swimming, taekwondo, tennis, weightlifting and volleyball.
Although at the time of press, Team Nigeria was already trailing serial winners Egypt with a silver and bronze medal won by Aruna Quadri and Effiong Edem in table tennis, Nigeria’s area of dominance is well known. It is an open secret that Team Nigeria is a formidable force in athletics, weightlifting and wrestling at the games.
At the 2015 Games in Congo Brazzaville, Team Nigeria topped the athletics table with 8 gold, 9 silver and 4 bronze medals, finished first in wrestling with 9 gold, 5 silver and 5 bronze medals while weightlifting came second behind Egypt with 16 gold, 24 silver and 11 bronze medals.
Team Nigeria maintained the tradition at the last games in Rabat, Morocco, as athletics produced 10 gold, 7 silver and 6 bronze medals to top athletics table, wrestling garnered 7 gold, 4 silver and 1 bronze just as weighlifters lifted 16 gold, 13 silver and 18 bronze medals.
Therefore, expectations are high that despite the absence of star athletes like Blessing Okagbare, Kemi Francis, Divine Oduduru, Joy Udo-Gabriel, Raymond Ekewvo, Ogho Okoghene, Amata Doreen, Emmanuel Ojeli, Dotun Ogundeji, Abejoye Ogeniyi, Aniekeme Alphonsus and Grace Anigbata, poster-girls of Nigerian athletics, Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume will lead the charge for medals in athletics in Accra.
Apart from athletics, the women’s football team, the Falconets, as the defending champions, are favoured to retain their crown. Already, Coach Chris Danjuma has assembled a crack squad made up upcoming stars like Adoo Yina, Olushola Shobowale, Delight Nwosu, Oluchi Ohaegbulem, Shukurat Oladipo, Blessing Okpe and Oluwabunmi Oladeji for the title defence.
In the same vein, Ladan Bosso whose Flying Eagles finished as runners up in the last edition will be counting on some members of his 2023 World Cup squad like captain Daniel Bameyi, Daniel Daga, Nathaniel Nwosu and Ibrahim Abdullahi to lead the charge for the African Games gold medal in men’s football event.
While charging the athletes to go forth and conquer the continent, the Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, said even as some of them will be representing the country for the first time, the games afford them the opportunity to make the nation proud.
“Let me remind you that you carry the hopes and aspirations of the entire country. As a government, the current administration will encourage you to excel without any hindrance,” he said.
And to boost the morale of the athletes, the Minister promised prompt payment of all allowances due to them as he vowed that no athlete would be short-changed.
A former Director of Sports in Katsina State, Aliyu Kofar-Soro, also charged the athletes to justify the confidence reposed in them by over 200 million Nigerians.
“It is a thing of honour to represent one’s country. Therefore, I urge the athletes to put in their best to win medals for their fatherland. There is no greater motivation than the big stage provided for them to write their names in gold.
“I believe for many of them, it is a dream come true. But they must compete fairly in order not to tarnish the image of the country,” said Kofar-Soro.
Meanwhile, the continental games which officially began yesterday with over 4,000 athletes and 29 events to be staged in three cities namely: Accra, Kumasi and Cape Coast will end on Saturday, March 24.
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