The 2022 Commonwealth Games has just come and gone. It was Nigeria’s best ever Commonwealth Games outing. Nigeria made her debut at the Games in 1950, coming back home with a silver medal in the Men’s High Jump event. We have been at every game since then which has been held every four years except for the ones prevented by the World War.
Our best outing had always been our exploits at the 1994 edition in Victoria, where Nigeria took home eleven gold, thirteen silverand thirteen bronze. Well, all that has now been confined to the annals of history. A beautiful history though because it will always be a point of reference.
Welcome to the new dawn
12 gold, 9 silver, 14 bronze medals and Nigeria this time, shattered her all time best records at the games.
In terms of total haul, it is not the largest of numbers compared to the previous best record from Victoria, Canada in 1994 with 37 medals consisting of 11 gold,13 silver and 13 bronze medals followed by 2014 outing where Team Nigeria won 36 medals with 11 gold, 11 silver and 14 bronze medals in Glasgow. This time around, despite amassing a total of 35 medals, below the numbers recorded in 1994 and 2014, we achieved the highest number of gold medals ever (12).
At New Delhi in 2010, Nigeria won 11 gold, 8 silver and 14 bronze medals. At the Gold Coast in 2018, Team Nigeria recorded another good performance with 9 gold, 9 silver and 6 bronze medals.
In Auckland in 1990, a total of 25 medals were won while 19 medals were picked in Manchester in 2002.
In Brisbane in 1982, Team Nigeria won 13 medals with 5 gold and 8 bronze medals.
Melbourne 2006 Nigeria won 17 medals consisting of 4 gold, 6 silver and 7 bronze medals
Team Nigeria’s performance at Kingston 1966 completes the top 10 where the most populous African country won 10 medals with three gold, three silver and four bronze medals.
Rulers World in Birmingham
Twenty media houses from Nigeria got accredited for the Commonwealth Games. Not surprisingly, Rulers World was one of the accredited from Nigeria and yours sincerely was at the games in Birmingham from start to finish.
This year’s Commonwealth Games marked England’s third time of hosting the Commonwealth Games after London 1934 and Manchester 2002. This is also the 7th Games held in the United Kingdom, with previous events in Wales and Scotland: Cardiff 1958, Edinburgh 1970 and 1986 and Glasgow 2014.
Birmingham was announced as host on 21 December 2017.
The Games was the largest ever held, with 72 participating nations and over 1.3 million ticket sales. It was also the first to have more events for women than men and the first integrated event, with the para competition held at the same time. Alongside the Games, a cultural festival was held across the West Midlands, as well as a number of trade events. An Esports event was also held.
I had narrowly missed out on the party in Manchester in 2002. I was yet to cover the Commonwealth Games right until I breezed into the UK for the Birmingham edition, so I seized the opportunity to cover the event for the first time and it was not only amusing but intriguing.
My Lowest Moments
Without a doubt, that has to be the disqualification of two Nigerian Para-Powerlifters, Onyinyechi Gift Mark and Latifat Tijani, both disqualified for arriving late at their event venue.
Firstly, the Nigerian Para-powerlifters arrived at the venue, NEC centre at 1.55 pm. That’s OK; they were 5 minutes ahead of the arrival deadline. “Oh no, we are sorry, you are late. You can’t participate”, one of the organizers politely informed the Nigerians. “Is this a joke”? One of the officials replied. And the response brought the Nigerian team back to reality.
Ok let us break it down further:
Competition rules say athletes must arrive no later than one hour before the event time. Furthermore, the show time for the para-powerlifting was set for 3pm, so any arrival before 2 pm was deemed legit, or so the Nigerians thought.
Fatal! The organizers had sent out messages to all participating countries that their athletes must arrive latest at 1.45 pm for weigh-in and kits inspection. Meanwhile, the Nigerians arrived at 1.55 pm. 10 minutes difference and our hopes and aspirations went up in smoke.
Reaction :
It was a lost cause, but no harm in trying. The Nigerian officials quickly put up a protest. “We did not receive any message, we didn’t get any mail, nothing”, they insisted.
“We sent out the mail to the Nigerian Paralympics’ Committee”, a stunned official of the games replied, bewildered.
Meanwhile, a back and forth ensued, but alas, nothing.
However, Lateefat Tijani and Onyinyechi Gift, sure medalists, ended up disqualified.
Quick thinking:
How come all other countries arrived on time and only Nigeria arrived late?
Highest Point
Definitely, it has to do with the performance of our brilliant quartet that won the women 4x100m relay gold.
The relay team that included world 100m hurdles record holder Tobi Amusan ran away with the women’s 4x100m relay title at the Commonwealth Games 2022 on Day 6 of track and field competitions at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.
A couple of hours after winning the 100m hurdles and breaking the Commonwealth Games record, a pumped-up Amusan returned to run the first leg for Nigeria in the sprint relay team.
The world sprint hurdles champion got the team off to a very quick start and her teammates —Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha –capitalized on the quality start as the Africans went on to clock a fast Area Record time of 42.10 seconds to improve on the 42.22 secs the squad clocked at the World Athletics Championships 2022 in Oregon in July to finish fourth.
Defending champion England was pushed back into second place in 42.41 while Olympic champion Jamaica grabbed the bronze medal in 43.08, thanks to a brilliant anchor leg by 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah who stormed past Australia’s Naa Anang down the final stretch.
Birmingham was a worthy experience; watch out for the next move.
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