Gold Coast Commonwealth Games
Chairman of Phidel Group of Schools, Lagos, Deacon Ayo Phillip Adelusi, believes Team Nigeria has the quality to excel at the ongoing Commonwealth Games.
The sports philanthropist also trusts the contingent to enhance the reputation of the country through excellent behaviour at the Games, which is featuring all the members of the former British Empire.
Adelusi implored the team to strive to improve on the record set by the country at the Victoria Games in 1994, where the team won 11 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals, which is its best record since the country made its debut at the games in 1950.
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“We have a strong table tennis men’s team with the presence of Aruna Quadri and Segun Toriola. They should be among the medalists in the men’s team event.
“Our athletics team may not have experienced stars, but I expect them to do well in the relays and jumps, especially the high jump, where we won our first international gold medal through Emmanuel Ifeajuna in 1954 at Vancouver Games.
They should emulate the 1994 Victoria team, which had the likes of Falilat Ogunkoya, Mary Onyali and Fatima Yusuf, among others.”
He is not happy, however, that only four male and four female boxers are representing Nigeria in the boxing category. He said, “I am not happy with the decline of boxing in Nigeria.
This is a sport that we dominated in the 70s and 80s through Isaac Ikhuoria, Obisia Nwankpa and Jerry Okorodudu etc.
This is a sport that gave us our first Olympic medal through Nojeem Maiyegun at the 1960 Tokyo Games, where he won a bronze medal.”
Source: G Sport
