The Federal Government has handsomely rewarded Team Nigeria athletes and officials that won medals at the just ended XXI Commonwealth Games in Australia.
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, on the occasion thanked the athletes for making the country proud with their podium performance.
In his remarks, Dalung stated that participation, discipline and hard work were medals which were won collectively by Team Nigeria.
He said: “I thank you very much for making us proud. We have nine gold, nine silver and six 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.
Dalung said: “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.”
Meanwhile, gold medalists in Wrestling pocketed the sum of $5000, silver medalist in Athletics, Wrestling, Para Athletics and Para Table Tennis got $3,000, while the relay teams earned $9,000 and $7000 for silver and bronze medals.
Nigeria finished ninth on the medals table.
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