The Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Professor Clifford Ofuru, has described the institution’s emergence as the overall winner of the 26th Nigeria University Games (NUGA) as memorable.

Mr Ofuru made the remark on the sidelines of the closing ceremony of the all-university games hosted by the University of Lagos (Unilag).

The defending champions of NUGA, UNIPORT, emerged the overall winner of the games for the seventh consecutive time.

Mr Ofuru said the feeling of winning the NUGA for the seventh time was ecstatic.

“I feel great about this feat, it’s not just a win but a seventh time of winning, I cannot really imagine how I would have felt if Uniport had not won this competition.

“This win is a memorable one for the university because it is a record time. However, we are not willing to slow down the tempo because the competition is also getting stiffer every year.

“Those coming behind are gradually closing the gap on us in terms of medals’ won. For us at Uniport, we have a culture of sports. UNIPORT has a niche for sports.

“We have developed a well structured developmental path of catching our young ones early and replacement for the older ones. This is what we call sports’ development,” he said.

UNIPORT won the 26th NUGA amassing: 61gold, 29 silver and 30 bronze making a total of 120 medals.

The host, UNILAG, followed in second place with 33 gold, 34 silver and 19 bronze; totalling 86 medals.

In the third place finish is debutant Nile University, Abuja, with 15 gold, 10 silver and 13 bronze, totalling 38 medals.

The University of Ilorin (UNILORIN) came fourth with 11 gold, 12 silver and 16 bronze, totalling 39 medals.

University of Benin came fifth with eight gold, nine silver and 20 bronze, totalling 37 medals.

Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, won seven gold, 13 silver and 18 bronze medals totalling 38 medals and occupied the sixth position while Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, came seventh with six gold, nine silver, and three bronze, amounting to18 medals.

The eighth position went to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, with six gold, five silver and nine bronze, totalling 20 medals. The Federal University of Technology (FUTA) Akure came and went home ninth with five gold, two silver and six bronze, totalling 13 medals.

The tenth position was occupied by the University of Nigeria(UNN) Nsukka that brought home four gold and one silver.

(NAN)