Preparations have been set in motion by the Sports Management Board (SMB) of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), to host the 26th Nigerian Universities Games Association (NUGA) Games.
Recall that UNILAG came second in last year’s edition of the West Africa Universities Games (WAUG), held in Port Harcourt, while game host, UNIPORT, seized the big prize with an assertive win.
The Chairman of UNILAG’s SPM, Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo, lamented the university’s performance at WAUG 2018, stating that the school needed to put in a lot of work to develop its facilities, in other to improve its athletes showing in the NUGA Games later this year.
Oyewo noted that the major reason UNILAG came behind in the medals tally at the WAUG, was because the school lacked proper representation in major sports like swimming. Hence, the board has embarked on a project to construct an Olympic-size swimming pool for training its swim-team.
“… In terms of certain sports, like the water sports such as swimming, we need to step up our game and hence, the need to do the needful in that area, especially with the NUGA that the university is about to host later in the year. We are indeed hosting to win.
“We have already noted some areas of challenge in terms of facilities such as the institution’s swimming pool. Our swimming pool is currently under renovation.” — Prof. Oyelowo Oyewo
The former Dean, Faculty of Law, also mentioned other team sports like hockey, where the university could not do well due to poor training facilities in the school.
Oyewo spoke on the importance of setting up a games village for the athletes for all year round training and cohabitation of the athletes in the school. With this, the university will be positioning itself to become of one the country’s major sports hubs in the near future.
Featured image source: campusbiz.com.ng