Follow Us on Google
Team Nigeria achieved great feat at the 2026 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Scotland, the 23rd in the series. Nigeria came 7th in the overall medals table with 10 gold, seven silver and seven bronze. Altogether, Nigeria had 24 medals. It was also Africa’s most successful contingent and the only African nation in the top 10. We commend Team Nigeria for the impressive outing in Glasgow. The performance represents a shift from recent international competitions, where Team Nigeria returned with zero or solitary medals. President Bola Tinubu commended the team and promised to invest in sports development and strengthening of sports institutions.
Nigeria’s medal haul came from track and field, power and combat sport events. Folashade Lawal Rafiatu put up a spectacular performance by breaking three Commonwealth Games records in a single day of competition on her way to winning gold in the women’s 58kg weightlifting by lifting an extra nine kg. She also lifted 103kg in the Snatch. Other gold winners include Goodness Nwachukwu (discus throw), Esther Nworgu, Riluwan Idris (para-powerlifting), and Rafiatu Lawal (weightlifting).
The country’s 400 metre prodigy, Samuel Uchenna Ogazi, shone brightly by winning the men’s 400m gold, thus, becoming the first Nigerian man to win in that category. Ezekel Nathaniel also became the first Nigerian athlete to win gold in the men’s 400m hurdles. In the same vein, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi won Nigeria’s first-ever Commonwealth gold in the men’s shot put.
These feats reflect a rising pool of talents in Nigerian athletics. Incidentally, these first-time gold medalists are based in the United States. We urge the sports authorities to invest more in grassroots sports to raise the standard of home-based athletes in the country, as not every talented athlete would be shipped abroad. Also, we commend our star athletes who fell short of winning gold medals, despite being the favourites going into the Games.
These include the sensational Auburn sprinter, Kanyisola Ajayi, who won bronze medals. Before the Commonwealth Games, Ajayi had emerged as the hottest sprinting prodigy by running the world lead in the 100 metres and winning two consecutive Diamond League races, becoming the first Nigeria to feature or win the elite global athletics event in the 100 meters in more than a decade.
Tobi Amusan, the reigning Commonwealth Champion in the 100 metres hurdles prior to the Games, secured a bronze podium finish. The 2021 World Junior champion, Udodi Onwuzuruike, won silver in the 200 metres. It was an improvement from the 2022 edition.
Just like it did in 2022, Team Nigeria won bronze in the 4x100m metres men’s relay. It was touted as the favourite but faltered along the line. Nigeria’s mixed 4x400m team secured bronze in the event won by Jamaica. Since its debut in 1950 at the Commonwealth Games, Nigeria has won over 230 medals across competitions. The 35 medals it won in 2022 remain the highest so far in the history of the competition. Temitope Adeshina won silver in the women’s high jump.
The 2026 Games took place from July 23 to August 2, 2026. Glasgow stepped in for Victoria, Australia, the original host of the competition, and hosted a streamlined 11-day event featuring 10 sports across four main venues in Scotland, with major events taking place in Glasgow’s Scotland Scotstoun Stadium. Around 3,000 athletes from 74 nations and territories participated. Ahmedabad (Amdavad), India, will be hosting the 2030 Games.
The Commonwealth Games is a quadrennial multi-sport event featuring athletes from the Commonwealth Federation member nations and territories. It was first held in 1930 as the British Empire Games and was renamed the Commonwealth Games in 1966. It is one of the oldest sporting events in the world outside the Olympics Games.
It is encouraging that the National Sports Commission (NSC), in fulfilment of the federal government’s pledge, rewarded gold medallists with instant $10,000, $5,000 for silver, and $3,000 for bronze at Glasgow. Record breakers earned an extra $5,000 instant bonus. We believe that exceptional sportsmen and women should be rewarded at all times to encourage them to do more. The sports administrators in the country should build on the momentum achieved at the Commonwealth Games, which recorded no scandals.
We urge the NSC to bring back Favour Ofili, who felt hard done by at the Paris Olympics and opted out of the Glasgow Games, back to the fold. Nigeria cannot afford to lose its best athletes for any reason. We expect the NSC to put machinery in place to discover new talents to surpass the Glasgow medal haul in the forthcoming 2030 event, as well as in other intentional sports events.
