NUGA 2013 : UNIPORT Team Wins Zonal NUGA Contest At NDU
Preparatory to the forthcoming 24th edition of the Nigerian Universities Games Association (NUGA) fiesta billed for Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, the indomitable Team UNIPORT, has again demonstrated its total dominance of the competition by crushing all opposition at the just-concluded Zone D preliminaries. The all conquering Team UNIPORT predictably topped all the events it participated in at the competition hosted by Niger Delta University (NDU), Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa.
Speaking to our Sports Correspondent in separate interviews, Directors of Sports, Dr Ken Anugweje and his Special Projects counterpart in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Matthew Wegwu, who commended the athletes for performing excellently well at the zonal preliminaries, expressed hope that by their performance, Team UNIPORT would again conquer the 24th edition of the NUGA Games in the ancient city of Ile-Ife as proof of its total dominance of the fiesta.
“Our team qualified for all the events which included athletics, chess, tennis, badminton, table tennis, judo and swimming. We did not enter a team for basketball, handball, football and volleyball, because we had some procedural difficulties with the athletes in those events; so we decided to let them attend only local inter-university championships, rather than the major championships such as NUGA and the West African Universities Games (WAUG). Besides, the teams we excluded would account for a maximum of five gold medals with over 60 athletes, while the events we featured in may yield returns of over 40 gold medals with less than 80 athletes. So it is not the size of the contingent that actually matters, rather it is the medals prospect of the contingent that really matters to us in our preparatory process”, Dr Anugweje said.
On when it would be ripe to enter a team for football competition which is widely acknowledged as the king of all sports, Dr Anugweje said: “let me be honest with you: I am not very satisfied with the quality of players we have now and their mind-set; they are so fixated in their ways that they are hardly trainable, but we are bringing Mr Deinma Tamunokuro, who was a successful football captain to take charge of the game at the Olympafrica training centre of the University. I am sure he would raise players with the right skills and the right mind-set to deliver the kind of result we expect.”
Expressing optimism that Team UNIPORT has the in-built capacity to conquer the 24th edition of NUGA Games, the Director of Sports said: “frankly speaking, we expect tougher opposition at the OAU games and do not expect to win as many medals as we have just done at the zonal preliminaries, but as I have always told you, I like to win and I am very happy that the athletes share my passion for success. With the massive support, Team UNIPORT is enjoying from the Vice-Chancellor and Management of the University, and I am sure we will do well again with a little more hard work”.
The zonal competition which took place between 24th to 27th April, 2013, also featured contingents from University of Calabar (UNICAL), Cross River University of Technology (CRUTECH), University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU), Imo State University (IMSU), Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST), Federal University, Otuoke and Niger Delta University (NDU).
