African Games
NIGERIA FINISHES SECOND AT 12TH AFRICAN GAMES
BY KUNLE SOLAJA, RABAT.
As the curtain falls on the 12th African Games tonight in Rabat, Team Nigeria places second as at close of most events on Friday night. The position will certainly not change, but there could be additional medals for events not concluded.
As at Friday night, Nigeria had 44 gold, 30 silver and 47 bronze medals making a total of 121 medals. Nigeria will certainly not be overtaken by the third-placed South Africa, which has 87 medals comprising of 36 gold, 26 silver and 25 bronze medals.
In all the different shades of medals, Nigeria ranks higher than the third-placed team.
The bulk of Nigeria’s medals came from weightlifting, which accounted for 16 gold, 13 silver and 18 bronze medals. This is followed by athletics, which accounted for 10 gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.
Nigeria’s gold medal count in Weightlifting
Nigeria’s silver medal count in Weightlifting
Nigeria’s bronze medal count in Weightlifting
The medal haul of Nigeria in wrestling is a bronze, four silver and seven gold medals. Next is the relatively less popular Canoeing where Nigeria had four gold medals.
Nigeria’s medal count in Athletics
Nigeria’s medal count in Wrestling
Nigeria’s medal count in Canoeing, Football and Gymnastics
Table Tennis fetched Nigeria two gold, four silver and four bronze medals. In badminton, Nigeria won two gold, three silver and three bronze medals. Basketball fetched Nigeria two medals comprising of a gold and bronze.
Nigeria’s medal count in Table Tennis, Taekwondo and Tennis
Nigeria’s medal count in Badminton
In football, Nigeria had a gold and a silver medal. Nigerian boxers won a gold, silver and five bronze medals. Table tennis fetched Nigeria two gold four silver and four bronze medals.
Nigeria had a gold medal in Karate. In gymnastic, it was a gold medal and two bronze medals. Taekwondo fetched Nigeria, a gold medal.
Nigeria’s medal count in Basketball and Boxing
Egypt are the runaway leaders, a position they have maintained in almost all editions of the Games except that of 2003 when Nigeria topped and in 1978 when they withdrew midway owing to perceived hostility with Algeria.
Forty-one years on, sporting ties between Egypt and Algeria have remained strained with football encounters involving both countries being tagged as ‘high risk’.
Incidentally, it was at the 1978 edition that current hosts, Morocco last participated. Their withdrawal from succeeding editions was politically motivated after the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) took sides with the Western Sahara.
The now dormant Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA) ran the Games at inception, which was a sporting arm of the OAU. The games are no longer under the control of African Union (AU) , the successors to OAU.