Team Nigeria Return Home

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Nigerian contingent to the 19th Commonwealth Games in India are schedueld to return to the country tonight.

Team Nigeria surpassed the record of the last Games in Melbourne 2006 where they won only 4 gold medals.  At the Delhi 2010, the team which took part in six sports won 11 gold, 10 silver and 14 bronze medals.

The chairman, National Sports Commission, NSC, Ibrahim Bio will lead the team back to the country tonight. The Sports Minister is the head of Nigerian delegation to the Delhi tournament.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Games chief Mike Fennell hailed Delhi 2010 a success despite the event getting off to a troubled start.

The Games overcame concerns on security and infrastructure to end with a lively closing ceremony yesterday, as the hosts’ mantle was officially passed to Glasgow 2014.

“Delhi has performed,” said Fennell. “The competition has gone well, the venues were of a high standard and the athletes are happy.

“We had to deal with a number of issues but the end result has been good.”

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Fennell conceded that the decision to award the Games to Delhi had been questioned in many quarters as preparations fell behind schedule.

There were serious problems with the athletes’ village and certain venues, while other setbacks included a collapsed pedestrian footbridge, ticketing confusion, poor crowds and big-name withdrawals.

But Fennell maintained that Delhi deserved the chance to stage its first multi-sport event since the 1982 Asian Games and insisted it had proved a worthy host.

“Before the Games people were asking me ‘why are you going to India? Why are you going to Delhi? When are you going to cancel the Games?’,” he said.

“But we felt it was our job to fix what was wrong not giving up. A year out from the Games people asked ‘what is your Plan B?’ I said ‘our Plan B is Delhi’.

“I don’t blame the media for exposing what had to be exposed. It was important to expose some of the fundamental problems and that helped. It helped us to get action going in some areas.

“People have seen an extremely positive image of the Games through television, right across the world.”

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