[EDITORIAL] Workforce Nigeria At Commonwealth Video games

Workforce Nigeria’s athletes and officers on the simply concluded 2022 Commonwealth Video games Birmingham, United Kingdom, put smiles on the faces of thousands and thousands of Nigerians in misery amid the financial downturn and rising insecurity within the nation.  With their unbelievable efficiency on the Video games, they’ve lifted the spirit of most Nigerians and given them causes to look on the brighter aspect of life.

It’s instructive to notice that Workforce Nigeria gained a report 12 gold, 9 silver, and 14 bronze, a complete of 35 medals. The gold medal haul is the very best at a single Commonwealth Video games for Nigeria, representing its greatest efficiency ever.

The earlier report stood at 11 gold in 1994 (Victoria, Canada), 2010 (New Delhi, India), and 2014 (Glasgow, Scotland).

Ese Brume ensured Workforce Nigeria set a brand new report on the video games by claiming the gold medal within the girls’s lengthy bounce occasion. Brume, 26, leaped to a brand new Commonwealth Video games report of seven.00m to reclaim her crown within the occasion. The Delta-born athlete earlier set a brand new video games report of 6.99m together with her second bounce of the day.

Workforce Nigeria ended the ultimate day on a convincing notice with Oluwatobiloba Amusan profitable a gold medal within the girls’s 100m hurdles, after which impressed Nigeria’s girls relay workforce to win an elusive 4x100m relay gold with a brand new African report of 42.10 seconds which erased the one-month-old 42.22 seconds African report they set in Oregon, USA, on the World Athletics championships.

Impressively, many new data have been set as outdated Commonwealth data have been damaged by Nigerian athletes, and jinxes of over 4 many years of no medals in some sports activities have been additionally damaged. This commendable outing ensured Nigeria completed as one of the best ranked African nation on the medals desk and seventh greatest on the Video games. A signpost for a greater future in Nigeria’s sports activities.

C’Wealth Video games: Buhari Celebrates Workforce Nigeria As Medals Improve To 35

We be a part of different Nigerians in congratulating athletes and, their handlers and officers for this history-making feat on the 2022 Commonwealth Video games. The athletes have as soon as once more demonstrated the true value of the Nigerian spirit.

Little doubt, Workforce Nigeria’s success in Birmingham proved that the nation’s sports activities are on the rise once more and we urge that each one fingers must be on the deck to maintain and enhance on this spectacular feat as we work towards the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris, France.

The breakdown of Workforce Nigeria’s medal haul on the Birmingham Video games signifies that each one 12 gold medals have been gained by feminine athletes. The ladies additionally accounted for 4 silver and 7 bronze, totaling 23 medals gained by girls out of the 35 medals amassed by the workforce. The boys have been solely liable for 12, comprising three silver and eight bronze medals.

Adijat Adenike Olarinoye set the tone for Nigeria by claiming the gold medal within the weightlifting 55kg class earlier than Rafiatu Folashade Lawal outwitted her rivals to say the primary place within the 59kg class.

The quartet of Miesinnei Mercy Genesis (50 kg), Blessing Oborududu (57 kg), and Odunayo Adekuroye (57kg) gained gold medals in girls’s freestyle wrestling, whereas Oluwatobiloba Amusan took the gold medal within the girls’s lengthy bounce earlier than she impressed the trio of Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nkwocha to victory within the girls’s 4X100m relay.

Different gold medalists are Folashade Oluwafemiayo, Ladies’s heavyweight Para Powerlifting, Eucharia Iyiazi, Ladies’s shot put; Chioma Onyekwere, and Goodness Nwachukwu in Ladies’s Discus throw; and Ese Brume, lengthy bounce.

This newspaper salutes all of the athletes for placing up a befitting efficiency towards the Commonwealth Video games’ greatest. As we commend the athletes, notably the women, for making the nation proud below very troublesome circumstances, we additionally commend the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports activities for his or her present of appreciation and proactiveness in splashing the money on the medalists through which the gold medalists obtained $5,000 every, whereas their coaches have been additionally given $3,000 every, simply as silver and bronze medalists have been additionally obtained $3,000 and $2,000 every respectively.

It was a departure from the previous the place Nigerian athletes often clamoured over pay disputes, thereby embarrassing the nation earlier than the worldwide neighborhood. This well timed gesture is kind of commendable and it’ll spur the athletes to higher success in future video games.

We additionally urge the sports activities authorities to maintain the brand new discovered tempo by embarking on a youth growth programme that can uncover skills who can be prepared and capable of take over from this workforce when the time comes and proceed to make the nation proud. In our view, that is no time to relaxation on this new discovered fame. The momentum should be seized and constructed upon by means of a coverage of catch them younger.