NUGA Games Preliminaries Begin At UNILAG Today

The preliminaries for the 2013 Nigeria University Games Association (NUGA) Zone F, will begin today at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), according to the event’s coordinator, Mr Owoyemi Idowu.

Idowu told Tidesports that the four-day preliminaries games would be to select the athletes that would represent the zone at the games.

The coordinator said that the 15 events were scheduled to hold at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife, Osun, between June 3 and June 17.

Idowu, who is also the badminton coach of the Lagos State University (LASU), said that UNILAG was chosen because it had all the needed facilities for the qualifying series.

According to him, the preliminaries are essential to select the most talented athletes for the zone in the 15 approved events for the games.

“So, the four-day preliminaries at UNILAG will be used to select the best athletes from the zone,” he added.

Idowu said that two universities would qualify for each of the 15 event at the preliminaries to represent the zone at the games.

“It is not an all comers affairs, the preliminaries will be used to select those that will represent the zone in NUGA proper,” he said.

He said that the increase in the number of universities in the country and the need to get the best teams that would represent the various zones for the games proper necessitated the preliminaries.

“Zone F performed well in the last edition at the games held at University of Benin with four gold medals in the group events, and many silver medals in individual events.

“Our plan this time around is to improve on our previous performance at the Ife Games,” he said.

He said that all the universities in Ogun, Lagos and Oyo States were in the zone, adding that some private universities in the zone would also feature in the preliminaries.

The universities are the University of Ibadan, Lagos State University, University of Lagos, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye and Bell University Ota, both in Ogun.