Team Nigeria Place 5th In AYG, Win 103 Medals
Team Nigeria placed fifth at the third edition of the African Youth Games in Algiers.
From a total of 30 sports featured at the games, Nigeria took part in 17 events, namely, Football, Wrestling, Judo, Boxing, Handball, Table Tennis,Swimming, Badminton, Rowing, Volleyball, Gymnastics, Shooting, Tennis, Beach Volleyball, Basketball, Canoeing, Hockey, Cycling and Athletics.
Team Nigeria finished fifth behind Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco at the end of the 2018 African Youth Games in Algiers.
According to the medals table from the organisers of the games Nigeria had a total of 103 medals with 29 gold, 32 silver and 42 bronze medals.
Team Egypt finish top of the medals table with 199 medals snatching 101 gold, 55 silver and 43 bronze.
Algeria finished on the second winning 226 medals, including 71 gold, 72 silver and 83 bronze just behind Egypt.
Tunisia occupied third position with 136 medals including 36 gold, 46 silver and 54 bronze while Morocco finished fourth with 106 medals including 29 gold, 37 silver and 40 bronze medals.
In the men’s wrestling, event Ebizimore Sariki (45kg), Lina Ozutu (48kg) Perediegha Ogidi (51kg), Kenechukwu Nnaemeka (65kg), Idowu Ladoja (110kg) won silver medal while Stephen Akintewe (60kg) and Ikechukwu Okafor (55kg) won bronze medals.
Sariki lost his final bout 4-0 to Abbes Houari from Algeria after beating Shaaban Abdalla of Egypt by 6-4 and Ghazouani Ayoub of Tunisia by 6-4.
Ozutu, competing in the 48kg lost in the final against Mohamed Benmehiriz of Egypt by 11-1 while Nnaemeka lost to Fathi Ismail by 3-0 in the 65kg final.
Ogidi lost 8-4 to Egypt’s Fouad Ahmed in the 51kg category to settle for silver; while Ladoja also lost to another Egyptian Khalil Ahmed in the 110kg gold medal event.
Tope defeated Pameli Harmalala of Madagascar to win a bronze in the 61kg men’s freestyle. Okafor also beat Mohamed Camara 7-2 points to win a bronze medal in the 55kg fight.
Mafia Edidiong Joseph and Opadeji Adedapo also won gold in the men’s 62kg and 69kg titles respectively.
In the women’s category, Morufat Folarin won gold in the women’s 44 kg, while her team-mate Agba Ebelechukwu also dominated the 48kg division winning gold as well.
Yusuf Islamiyat also won gold in the women’s 58kg event.
In the boxing event, Nigeria won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals. Joy Ojo competing in the 48kg division won gold in the female’s light fly while Adijat Gbadamosi (52kg) won the second gold in the female fly weight at the games.
Aminu Lawal (70kg) and Ubi Obono (75kg) won silver in the light middle and middle weight category respectively while Ezekiel Etukere (60kg) and Eguabor Desmond (57kg) in the light welter and feather weight won bronze.
In Football, Nigeria’s Under 15 national team, lost 3-1 to Morocco in the final. In the men’s handball event, Nigeria clinched the bronze medal after defeating Morocco by 24-17 points. In Hockey, Nigeria’s women’s hockey team lost 2-0 to Ghana in the quarterfinals.
In athletics, the country won three gold, two silver and two bronze.
Rosemary Chukwuma won two gold in the women’s 100m and 200m while Meyiwa Ine won the other gold in the men’s triple jump.
Ine won silver in the men’s long jump while Alaba Akintola won the second silver in the men’s 100m.
Iruoghene Okoro won bronze in the men’s 200m and while Sarah Oluigbo also placed third in the women’s 400m hurdles to win bronze as well.
In table tennis Esther Oribamise and Azeez Solanke won silver in the mixed doubles event while Oribamise grabbed bronze in the women’s singles. Oribamise and Solanke lost to Egyptian duo Youssef Abdel-Aziz and Marwa Alhodaby in the final of the event to win silver.
Solanke had finished fifth after he lost by Abdel-Aziz in the quarterfinals of the men’s singles while Oribamise who lost to Alhodaby in the semi-final of the women’s singles bounced back to defeat Mauritius’ Jalim Nandeshwaree in the bronze match. Oribamise will represent Nigeria at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires later in the year.
Nigeria’s male volleyball team also won gold in their event and qualified for the 2019 FIVB U-19 World Boys’ Championship in Iran.
Nigeria beat Egypt 3-2 to clinch the medal and qualification. They defeated Tunisia in the quarterfinals and Algeria in the semi-finals.
The African Youth Games targets the 14 to 18 age group and is planned to contribute to the development of African sport and to the growth of Olympic values.
