Nigeria records best-ever performance in history of Solidarity Games |

As the curtain closed on the 6th Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Friday with a spectacular closing ceremony, Nigerian athletes head home after winning an impressive 30 medals to end the year on an outstanding note for Nigerian sports.

Team Nigeria ended with 11 gold, 12 silver, and seven bronze medals to record its best ever performance in the history of the games.

The National Sports Commission’s new strategy of attending international competitions with only athletes with podium prospects have already started paying off.

The NSC featured only seven sports at the Games: Taekwondo, Boxing, Athletics, Wrestling, Weightlifting, Para-Powerlifting, and Para athletics.

Nigeria won medals in all the sports.

And after featuring 32 athletes at the Games, Nigeria almost equated that number with its total number of medals won: 30 medals.

Nigeria won its highest number of medals from Weightlifting with six gold, four silver, and three bronze medals, while athletics provided the second highest number of medals with two gold, four silver, and three bronze medals.

Wrestling produced two gold and two silver medals, while Power powerlifting produced one, boxing one silver, Para Athletics one silver, and Taekwondo one bronze to earn Nigeria its medal total of 30.

The Director General of the NSC, Hon. Bukola Olopade, said while the Commission is very happy with the outing in Riyadh, it will be very important to build on it ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games and future international competitions.

Olopade said: “We will surely see how we will step up the sustainability strategies that gave us these results in Riyadh, which is why we will increase our collaborations and support for the various Sports Federations to deliver on both the sports economy and the podium mandate given to us by Mr. President.”

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