TEAM UNIZIK FINISHES 29TH ON THE MEDAL’S LOG WITH 6 MEDALS AT 26TH NUGA
By Ikenna Nwokedi, PhD
Team UNIZIK finished 29th on the medals’ table out of the 73 Universities that competed at the just concluded 26th Nigerian Universities Games Association (NUGA) hosted by the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Akoka, Lagos State. The University’s contingent consisting of 74 athletes and 14 officials recorded a total of 6 medals; 1 Gold and 5 Bronze to put the institution on the National Chart for School Sports.
Team UNIZIK led by the Director of Sports of the institution, Mr. Kenneth Ogbonna and the Chairman, University’s Sports Committee, Dr. Dereck Orji featured in 10 events namely Athletics (100metres, 200metres, 400metres, 800metres, Discus, Javelin, Long Jump, Shot Put and Triple Jump), Badminton (Male/Female), Chess (Female), Cricket (Male), Judo (Male/Female), Karate (Male/Female), Football (Female), Scrabble (Male/Female), Taekwondo (Male/Female) and Table Tennis (Female). Notable moments at the 26th NUGA for UNIZIK is in the team sports event; Football, were the female team took third position to win the bronze medals in their debut appearance and in Track/Field were John Eigege won the Gold medal setting a new record at the games for Javelin with a throw of 54.41 metres.
Meanwhile, Team UNIPORT emerged Champions of the 2022 edition of the NUGA with a total of 120 medals amassing 61 Gold, 29 Silver and 30 Bronze. Host UNILAG finished second on the log with 86 medals (33 Gold, 34 Silver and 19 Bronze), Nile University came third with 38 medals (15 Gold, 10 Silver and 13 Bronze) while the host of the next edition of the NUGA games, University of Jos (UNIJOS) finished 13th on the medal’s table with 12 medals (3 Gold, 3 Silver and 6 Bronze).
At a colourful closing ceremony held on Saturday, 26th March 2022 at the UNILAG Stadium, NUGA President, Prof. Stephen Hamafyelto stated that the 26th NUGA has brought about an awesome time of competition, developing healthy rivalries, bringing the best student athletes across Universities in Nigeria together and giving them the platform to do what they love the most.
Also speaking, UNILAG Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe thanked the NUGA management for giving the institution the platform to host, he also said that the institution will prepare adequately to host the West African region in two years time for All Africa University Games (FASU).
73 Universities participated in this year’s championship with 17 sports being competed for. A total of 655 medals was won; 192 Gold, 192 Silver and 271 Bronze.
MEDALS’ HAUL FOR TEAM UNIZIK AT THE 26TH NIGERIA UNIVERSITIES GAMES ASSOCIATION (NUGA)
1) John Eigege – Javelin (Gold)
2) Female football Team – Football (Bronze)
3) Male Cricket Team – Cricket (Bronze)
3) Nkasiobi Ichoku – Female Chess (Bronze)
4) Okechukwu Onyebuchi – Male Scrabble (Bronze)
5) Felix Osondu – Male Karate -84kg class (Bronze)
