Ugochukwu Iwuchukwu
The University of Port Harcourt UNIPORT has emerged the overall winner of the 14th West African University Games WAUG,2018 after amassing 125 medals to top the log.
A breakdown of the figures shows that UNIPORT won 75 gold, 26 silver, and 24 bronze medals to beat University of Lagos(UNILAG), the first Runners-up that scored 16 gold, 24 silver, and 16 bronze.
The second Runners up was the University of Cape Coast, Ghana that bagged 9 gold and 16 silver medals.
The football event went to University for Development Studies, Ghana that beat Bayero University, Kano(BUK) 4-2 on penalties after the duo played out a 1-1 draw within 90 minutes regulation time and 30 minutes extra time.
Declaring the competition closed, the Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu while congratulating the winners and indeed all the participants for a job well done also commended UNIPORT for organizing what he described as one of the best championships in the history of WAUG.
The Minister said university games and sports generally should be encouraged in our institutions to build friendships and bridge barriers among the students in Nigeria and beyond.
He promised that the Federal Government will continue to encourage sports in our schools.
In his speech, the Vice Chancellor VC of UNIPORT, Prof Ndowa Lale thanked God for a successful competition.
He congratulated the winners and the losers alike.
The VC particularly commended the University of Cape Coast for coming all the way from Ghana to lift the football trophy regarded as the king of sports.
Prof Lale who said the hosting of the games was not perfect, expressed confidence that subsequent editions will be better.
