As the Glasgow 2014 Com­monwealth Games comes to a close tomorrow, Team Nigeria officials are count­ing their blessings. Much of the accolades no doubts go to the women for etching the name of the country in gold.
As it was in the beginning, Nige­rian women have been in the van­guard of amassing medals at events more than their male counterparts and the Glasgow Games is not dif­ferent. They carry the banner here and remain a priceless treasure of Team Nigeria.
Former African record holder Mary Onyali could not help but laughed when asked why the trend has always been like this.
“The ladies are on top. Women are coachable more than the men. Men are hard to coach and to con­vince. It’s a natural thing. Men have been under our shadows for a long time. It is like taking a horse to the stream. It is difficult to force it to drink water. We’ve been supporting our male counterparts morally and financially. Yet they are not hungry enough to pull their worth. They need to put their acts together. They need to wake up!’’, Onyali who has been an inspiration to the emerging force of women led by Blessing Okagbare said.
Weightlifting coach Emmanuel Oshomah who also led Maryam Usman to win gold here agrees that women are on the groove over men in Glasgow.
“It has to do with the level of disci­pline and endurance. There are things that women cannot do for a long time. It is not so with men. It is natural. Also, the elasticity level of women are better than men’s. Women tend to start sports earlier than men. This is so because men want to be indepen­dent before embracing sports. And when they enter at old age, once they sustain injury, it takes longer to heal because of age. Don’t forget that men are always fending for themselves’’,  Oshomah said.
A break-down of Nigeria’s medals shows that women have won eight gold, 3 silver and 5 bronze medals, while men did not win any gold, ex­cerpt 3 silver and 6 bronze medals.
Amazons who won gold include; Blessing Okagbare 2 gold(100m and 200m), Ese Brume(Long Jump gold), Amalaha Chika(Weightlifting),  Ad­esanmi Oluwatoyin(Weightlifting), Usman Maryam(Weightlifting), Ad­ekuoroye Odunayo(Wrestling),  and Adeniyi Aminat.
Women who won silver are Win­ifred Ndidi(Weightlifting),  Okoli Obioma(Weightlifting),  and Ebireg­uesele Itohan(Weightlifting).
Men who got silver medals are Ayenuwa Yinka(Weightlifting), Dick Abibo(Wrestling) and Welson Ebikewenimo(Wrestling).