20th Commonwealth Games kick off in Scotland

The 20th Commonwealth Games will kick off today at Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland.Nigeria will be participating in the Games which started in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada, for the 12th time.The 11-day competition attracts 4,500 athletes from the 71 participating nations, who will compete in 17 different sporting disciplines.The host nation's flag at the opening ceremony will be carried by judo veteran Euan Burton, as confirmed by Team Scotland.Team Nigeria, made up of 127 athletes, left in batches and will compete in seven sports-athletics, boxing, table tennis, weightlifting, shooting, wrestling and para-sports.The wrestling team, made up of 14 matsmen and seven officials, was the last to arrive in Glasgow from their training tour of Romania on Tuesday.With the wealth of experience of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF), president, Daniel Igali, who also serves as the nation's head of technical commission, Nigerians bank heavily on the wrestlers for medals in Glasgow.Igali, a Sydney 2000 Olympic gold medallist has been a driving force behind the team's success since his return to his fatherland.The team still has the New Delhi 2010 champion, Sinivie Boltic as well as Blessing Oborududu and Aminat Adeniyi, who won gold medals at the 2014 senior African wrestling championship in Tunisia. Also, the athletics team under the tutelage of former American sprinter Maurice Greene is expected to go for medals harvest against all odds with the presence of sensational Blessing Okagbare and triple jump New Delhi 2010 winner, Tosin Oke, among others.The para-sports team boasts world's record holder and defending champion, Yakubu Adesokan alongside Esther Oyema, who equally won gold medals at New Delhi 2010, for medals as well.Meanwhile, Nigeria's best performance in the Commonwealth Games was the result of 11 gold, 13 silver and 13 bronze medals obtained at Victoria '94.
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