Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games Nigeria finishes with 24 medals as curtain draws on competition
NIGERIA ended its competition at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games with Aruna Quadri’s table tennis silver medal bringing the country’s total haul at the event to 24. Quadri, who was beaten in the quarterfinal at the last edition of the competition in Glasgow, Scotland, lost the gold medal to Singapore’s Gao Ning, just before the closing ceremony yesterday.
The 24 medals, which placed Nigeria ninth on the medals’ table, are made up of nine gold, nine silver and six bronze medals, a collection which Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, believes is better than the Scotland 2014 total when compared on the basis of number of athletes featured in both competitions.
Speaking to the contingent yesterday, Dalung said, “We have done a comparative analysis and looked at the size of our contingent when we went to Glasgow. How many sports we competed in and how much money was voted? These are the factors which will confirm whether we have done better here or not. From the average knowledge of what I have, we have done better here than what we did in Glasgow.”
Dalung also announced that arrangements to host the athletes in Nigeria have been put in place.
“This will enable us to interface, interact, cross pollinate ideas and enjoy ourselves. I don’t want us to access our success with medals. We should assess our success by participation and the way we conducted ourselves during the Games. It is also time to begin to invest in our athletes if we want to do well in sports.”
One of the highlights of the country’s participation in the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games is the instant reward to medallists at the event’s venue, which is a clear departure from past competitions where athletes sometimes had to resort to protests before they were paid their entitlements. In Gold Coast, all the gold medallists received $5000 each, silver got $3,000, the bronze medallists got $2,000, while the relay teams got $9,000 and $7000 respectively for their silver and bronze medals.