The Federal government of Nigeria has again rewarded the remaining part of Team Nigeria athletes and officials who won medals at the XXI Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung on the occasion, thanked the athletes for making the country proud with their podium performance.
In his remarks, Barrister Dalung stated that participation, discipline, and hard work were medals which were won collectively by Team Nigeria.
“I thank you very much for making us proud. We have 9 Gold, 9 Silver and 6 Bronze medals totaling 24. 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.”
The Minister also announced that arrangements to host those available back in Nigeria has 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.”
Again, $5000 was given to Gold medalists in Wrestling and Athletics while $3,000 went to silver medalists in Athletics, Wrestling, and Para Athletics and Para Table Tennis while the relay teams got $9,000 and $7000 respectively for silver and bronze medals.
Nigeria finished 9th on the Medals.
