Team Nigeria lists 90 athletes, 45 officials for Commonwealth Games

NIGERIA will present 90 athletes and 45 officials at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games scheduled to run from April 4 to 15, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has revealed. The country will feature in 10 events, including Athletics, Basketball, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Boxing, Table Tennis, Gymnastics, Para table tennis, Para Athletics, Para Powerlifting.

The ministry held a meet- ing yesterday with presidents of the 10 federations, whose athletes will be taking part in the Games.

Speaking at the meeting, Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung said it was convened to scrutinise and defend the athletes’ participation at the Games, evaluate their prospects and finalize arrangements for the last phase of training before the games. A breakdown of the contingent shows that wrestling will be represented by six male and six female athletes, who will depart for Australia tomorrow to continue preparations for the games. Weightlifting will feature four athletes, two men and two women, but athletics has the largest contingent with 37 stars, including 17 men and 20 women. Three medals prospects, includ- ing Divine Oduduru and gymnast, Uche Eke will not be at the championship due to academic commitments. The development means that Gymnastics will be represented by just one gymnast.

“Athletics will hold its final training for 10 days while its top 10 athletes will attend the World indoors in Birmingham before arriving on March 1,” the ministry said.