Common Pride At Commonwealth Games.

Sports can be a great tool for building national cohesion and recently, when record-setting Nigerian athlete Tobi Amusan shattered the existing world record at the 2022 World Athletics Championship in Oregon, Nigerians found some cause for cheer and some momentary distraction from the many problems convulsing the country.

At a time when it is not exactly love, light and laughter back home in Nigeria, Nigeria`s participation at the ongoing commonwealth games commonly known as Birmingham 2022 is giving Nigeria some reason for cheer as while as some positive publicity on the international stage.

The commonwealth Games, often referred to as the Friendly Games, is a quadrennial international multi-sport event among athletes from the commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and with the exception of 1942 and 1946 when the event was cancelled due to World War II have held every four years.

The Commonwealth Games Federation

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) is the organization responsible for the direction and control of the Commonwealth Games and Commonwealth Youth Games, and for delivering on the vision of the Commonwealth Sports Movement: to build peaceful, sustainable and prosperous communities globally by inspiring Commonwealth Athletes to drive the impact and ambition of all Commonwealth Citizens through Sport.

The organization has its headquarters in the UK, but works 72 member nations and territory. Nigeria`s medal haul so far at the games in Birmingham is testament to how Nigerian athletes are holding their own there. This is no easy feat given the historic development problems sports has witnessed in Nigeria especially as the country continues its downward spiral into the doldrums of bad governance.

So far, at the games holding between July 28, 2022 to August 8, 2022, the Nigerian team known as Team Nigeria is the leading African team after clinching its eight gold medal on Day 9 of the games.

At the end of Day 8, Nigeria had trailed South Africa in eight position on the table having amassed a total of seven gold, three silver, and six bronze medals to bring its haul to sixteen medals.

However, on Day 9 of the Games, Nigeria had shot up to nine gold medals when Eucharia Iyayi won gold in the Women`s F55-57 Shot Put event

Amusan`s artistry as an analgesic

On Sunday, August 7 2022, World Athletics Champion Tobi Amusan brought home Nigeria`s tenth gold medal at the games when she ran a Games record of 12.30s to erase the 16-year-old 12.65 seconds games record set by Jamaica`s Brigitte Foster-Hylton in Melbourne Australia.

It may seem incongruous to speak of artistry when talking about an athlete, but as record after record continues to tumble before the champion hurdler, providing in the process a positive distraction for a beleaguered country, to describe Amusan`s breathtaking achievements as artistry is to capture the essence of her genius.

There is no telling what is possible in Nigeria. but those who can have the courage to try can tell that anything is possible in country of more than two hundred million people, many of who are youths who defy great odds to keep pushing barriers in a country that continues to post some of the worst human capital outcomes in the world.

There is corruption and then there is sheer incompetence on the part of those who administer sports in Nigeria, just as there is with those who govern the country. But given what Nigerians go on to achieve not just in sports but in various fields when the environment is right, there is no telling what can happen when the country finally begins to get its acts together.

For a country that hurts all over these days, the games and the gold medals are cathartic.

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