NUGA Zone F Qualifiers: UNILAG, FUNNAB Lead

As the preliminaries of the 2013 Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Zone F kicked off yesterday at the Sports Complex of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), host – UNILAG and Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) are in top spot after winning the most medals in the  squash and table tennis events in the preliminaries of the 2013 Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Zone F.

With six schools taking part in the three-day tournament, which serves as qualifiers for the 2013 NUGA Games holding in June at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), UNILAG team confirmed its superiority in the squash event dominating in the men and women categories.

Also yesterday, FUNAAB were in superb form in table tennis beating University of Ibadan (UI) and Lagos State University (LASU) to the title in the men and women team events. UI and LASU suffered 3-1 defeats in the hand of FUNNAB.

However, UNILAG have started working their way to the top at the championship with victories over FUNAAB and UI in the volleyball and basketball events.

In volleyball, the Akoka boys beat FUNNAB 3-1 to record victory in their first game, while in the basketball event; UNILAG ladies pounded UI 48-17 to be on top.

According to NUGA Zone F Co-coordinator, Cecilia Arinye, six schools are taking part in the competition after Lead City and Bell Universities were turned back following their inability to produce proper registration for the games.

“The games had started and the athletes are putting all their efforts to ensure that they make the school proud and for us at NUGA, we are also working hard to ensure that only bonafide students take part in the tournament. Any athlete or school found using mercenaries will be disqualified,” she said.

Continued she said: “Every athlete taking part in this preliminaries have been well screened and most of them are also certified to be part of the NUGA Games in June if they qualify. This is a development and I urge all teams to play according to the rules.”

Two schools are expected to qualify for team event, while two athletes are to represent each school in individual events at NUGA.

Participating schools at the main NUGA Games will directly compete for cricket and hockey events.

Aside the host – UNILAG, others taking part in the competition are IU, FUNAAB, LASU, Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) and Tai Solarin University of Education (TASUED). The tournament ends on Saturday.