Scotland’s commercial centre, Glasgow got the attention of the world and especially of nations in the Commonwealth on Wednesday night when the 2014 Commonwealth Games commenced and is scheduled to run till August 3rd.
The ceremony took place at Celtic Park, with over 40,000 seater home ground of football club Celtic FC, which has seen a significant transformation for the Games following the installation of Europe’s largest LED screen in the stadium.
Formerly known as the British Empire Games and later the British Empire and Commonwealth games, is the third largest sporting event in the World and the 20th edition since its inception in 1930.
The most recorded winners in these games, Australia with 12 overall leads will be competing in the games to defend their record as the highest winning country.
No African country has ever hosted this event, however, they have been remarkable in their participation.
Team Nigeria, one of Africa’s representative will be taking part for the thirteenth time after debuting in 1950.
Registered in six games; athletics, boxing, weight lifting, etc. which have been the strongest point of contest for Nigeria, the team is flagged by the top athletes in the country presently: Blessing Okagbare, Blessing Asumnu and Mark Jelks.
At the last games in Delhi, Nigeria came 9th, taking home 33 medals, including 11 gold medals.
This year, the team expects to either equal or better the record.
A record of1.5 billion viewers around the world who will be watching the prestigious sport festival, the opening procession that kicked off two days ago by 20:00 GMT, 9pmNigerian time at Celtic Park, will watch the team.
In spite of the withdrawal of some of the top athletes like Yohan Blake and some others, the game still would take its shine.
About 6,500 athletes from 71 participating countries will be introduced to the stadium and a live television audience estimated to reach a figure of 1.5 billion people.
High points of the game will be the procession of 6,500 athletes representing 71 countries and not forgetting when Usain Bolt lines up in the track to do what he knows how to do best.
Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare is a medal hopeful in the track and field events.
Among the participating nations will be Team Nigeria with 127 athletes representing the country in six sports that include athletics and para-athletics, weightlifting and power-lifting, wrestling, table tennis, shooting and boxing.
Team Nigeria’s preparations for the four-year sporting event has however been stifled by late release of funds for training camps and unpaid camping allowances to athletes as a consequence.
Regardless, there is still hope for Team Nigeria to be among the medals through sprint queen Blessing Okagbare, who goes into the Games in good form having won the 200m race in the IAAF Diamond League meet in Paris, ahead of USA’s Allyson Felix and Jamaica’s double world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryse who will also be at the Games.
At this year edition featuring 71 countries in 261 events of 17 sports, Team Nigeria will be participating in six sports namely; athletics (46 athletes), boxing (11boxers), table tennis (10 players), shooting (16 shooters), weightlifting (15 lifters) and wrestling (14 wrestlers). Team Nigeria will also be competing in power-lifting (6 lifters) and para-athletics (9 athletes).
Will Blessing Okagbare be up to the task of salvaging the nation’s image in track and field once more? Last August at the IAAF World Championships, the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) graduate won a silver and bronze in the women’s long jump and 200m to equal Nigeria’s best outing at the competition.
Team Nigeria will be aiming to put up a brilliant display or even surpass its best ever performance at the sport fiesta.
The 1994 edition hosted by the city of Victoria, Canada, remains evergreen in the memories of Nigerians. That was where Nigeria grabbed 37 medals (11 gold, 13 silver, and 13 bronze) to record her best ever outing to date.
Despite the late preparations and the administrative bungling that go with attending global sports fiestas, Team Nigerian athletes are expected to give their bests once more. The need to clean up the mess caused by the recent, self-inflicted suspension from FIFA becomes more evident so as to return smiles to the faces of sports loving citizens.
Anthony Nlebem
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