The Minister of Youth and Sport, Barrister Solomon Dalung, has warned Presidents of the 10 sport Federations that will be providing Team Nigeria athletes for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Australia that he will hold them responsible for the disappearance of any of their athletes at the Games, while there will be zero tolerance to drug offenses.
Dalung who was speaking during the Ministry of Youth and Sport final preparations for the Commonwealth Games further charged the athletes to go for gold at the Games and ensure that Nigeria’s name is not dragged to the mud during the tourney.
According to Dalung, a total of 90 athletes and 43 team officials will be making the trip to Ghana holding from April 4-15, 2018, as the Athletes Games Village is expected to opens on March 25.
The Team Nigeria athletes are drawn from the following sports Federations: Athletics, Basketball, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Boxing, Table Tennis, Gymnastics, Para table tennis, Para Athletics and Para Powerlifting.
In his opening remarks, Dalung said the meeting with the 10 federations was to scrutinise and defend the athletes participation at the Games, evaluate their prospects and finalise arrangements for the last phase of training, before the games.
At the meeting, the Nigeria Basketball Federation represented by its Vice President Babs Ogunade said that due to the unavailability of their professionals at this time due to the on-season, the US-based players will only be available for camping two weeks to the opening of the Games village.
Wrestling will be represented by six male and six female wrestlers. The President, Daniel Igali, expressed confidence that his wrestlers will perform creditably following their performance at the recently concluded African Wrestling Championship in Rivers State. Igali however opted to train in Nigeria which he said will augur well for the team’s training program. The team will depart for Australia on March 2, 2018.
The Weightlifting Federation, fresh from the qualifiers in Uganda will be represented by 2 male and 2 female lifters.
Athletics have the largest contingent of 37 athletes comprising 17 male and 20 female athletes. 3 athletes including Divine Oduduru will not be at the games due to school commitments and likewise gymnast Uche Eke . The Gymnastics Federation will be presenting just one gymnast.
Table tennis Federation has five male players. They will begin camping three weeks before the games which is when they’ll be released by their various clubs.
