Commonwealth games 2022…
By: Mohamed M. Sesay
African’s most densely inhabited Country has been shinning bright in the just concluded 22nd edition of the 2022 Commonwealth Games as the top performing African country in Birmingham. The eagles as folded dubbed, revamped their magnificent record by bagging thirty-five (35) medals in the competition. It was indeed a restoring recording breaking for Nigerians as they outdid the African continent’s medal table for the very first time since 1994. Southern African took the second place followed by Kenya third.
The undisputable giant of Africa (Nigeria), maintained such title at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Nigeria completed the games with 7th position on the overall global medal table. It bags 12 gold medals, 9 Silver Medals and 14 Bronze Medals. Notwithstanding the fact that Nigeria finished 7th position globally, they also remained the high-ranking country in Africa as far as the 2022 Commonwealth Games are concerned. These particular Nigerian athletes Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume, brought euphoric gratification on the faces of Nigerians and making the country very proud for beating world records.
It has never been an astonishing moment to underscore that South Africa is not a first-timer especially in the area of Commonwealth Games. South Africa side has always maintained a rock-hard performance in the commonwealth games. This is evident in the 2022 commonwealth games as the country bagged 7 goal medals, 9 Silver Medals and 11 Bronze Medals bringing to a total of 27 medals. The country also finished 9th position at global level in the 2022 Commonwealth games.
Emerging third place in the Africa Continent at the just ended Commonwealth Games is attributed to Kenya. There has been undisputable universal perception about Kenyan in athlete. Kenyan athletes are dominantly known for their endowing endurance in marathon and long distance races. Such indelible Kenyan records have resurfaced and reestablished at the 2022 Common Wealth games as the country bagged 21 medals. The 21 medals were recorded in the athletics and para-athletics categories except for Helen Wawira Kariuki’s bronze win in the Para Powerlifting category. Kenya ended the game with 6 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 10 bronze medals.
Comfortably claiming the fourth position in the continent, Uganda managed to clinch 3 gold medals and 2 bronze bringing to a total of 5 medals. Such performance aided Uganda to comfortably finish at 16th position in terms of global ranking of the 2022 commonwealth games. Going back into the historicity of Uganda in the 2018 commonwealth games, Uganda marginally finished in similar performance as they won 3 gold medals, 1 silver medals and 2 bronze. Notwithstanding the fact that Uganda is way beneath Kenya in terms of medals, the Ugandan athletes are an amazing team to watch in subsequence games.
The Fifth best performing African Country in the 2022 Commonwealth Games is Cameroon. The indomitable Lions (Cameroon) recorded only one medal each in the three medal categories. Berthe Etane Ngolle emerged as spur-of-the-moment with a bronze Medal in wrestling, Arlette Mawe Fokoa also earned Silver in athletics, and Junior Ngadja Nyabeyeu made his team very proud by securing a gold medal in weightlifting. The Cameroonian Team would have ended up with three wins but this was a mesmerizing performance by the indomitable Lions since they did not win any gold medal in the 2018 commonwealth games. The Indomitable Lions finished with 20th position globally in the 2022 Commonwealth games.
A conglomeration of seventy-two (72) countries and territories actively took part in the just concluded 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham City in the United Kingdom. Seventeen (17) out of the seventy-two (72) Participating countries came across the radius and circumference of the African continent. The Commonwealth Games officially started on 28th July and ended on the 8th of August 2022.
The Participating countries were: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei, Cameroon, Canada, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Cyprus, Dominica, England, Eswatini, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Ghana, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey, Guyana, India, Isle of Man, Jamaica, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Samoa, Scotland, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Helena, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Tanzania, the Gambia, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Wales and Zambia.
