FG says preparations for next African Games start immediately,  salutes Team Nigeria’s performance

The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, has said Team Nigeria’s preparations for the next African Games will start now, with a review of the outing in Accra as the first point of business.

Enoh made this known while addressing newsmen on his perception of Nigeria’s record-breaking appearance in Accra, Ghana, for the 13th edition of the African Games.

Nigeria recorded its first swimming medal in 33 years, as well as a medal in handball in 21 years. The country improved its 46 gold medals from the 2019 African Games to 47 in the 2023 Games.

In a statement by Diana-Mary Nsan,
Special Assistant Media
to the Minister of Sports, late Tuesday, the Minister assured Nigerians that preparations have started for the Olympic Games in Paris.

He said: “I am a happy Nigerian, the president is happy, Nigerians are happy. The reward for doing well is to do better.

“For the next games, our preparations will be better. For this Games, we will interrogate what happened. We aimed to finish at the top of the medal table; however, history shows we have finished at the top only once, but with hard work, determination, serious leadership, and planning, we can achieve this.

“Preparations have started for the Olympic Games in Paris. The Ministerial Podium Performance Committee has been tireless, going through all the training camps we had.

“The report is that the sports that followed the recommendations of the committee did better than those that did not. The committee is not just about the African Games but also the Olympics. We want to record gold medals at the Olympic Games.

“We will consolidate on the sports we have strength on. The Ministry will adopt every strategy possible and funding models to assist in taking care of athletes. We will also beam light on the other sports that we don’t do well.”

Final medal table Nigeria finished second behind Egypt with 47 gold, 34 silver, and 40 bronze medals, for a total of 121 medals. For Nigeria, weightlifting had the most medals, with 16 gold, 10 silver, and 6 bronze, totaling 32 medals.

Athletics came next with 11 gold, 6 silver, and 5 bronze medals, totaling 22 medals. Boxing raked in 8 gold and 2 silver medals, totaling 10 medals. Wrestling brought in 6 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze medals, totaling 11 medals.

Arm wrestling provided 4 gold, 2 silver, and 7 bronze medals, totaling 13 medals. Gold medals also came in from badminton and taekwondo, with basketball, cycling, cricket tennis, chess, hockey, and table tennis also contributing to the medal haul.