Source: www.insidethegames.biz
Story by: Duncan Mackay
British Sports Internet Writer of the Year
Nigeria have joined Britain and Japan in choosing Loughborough University as its base for a pre-Games training camp before next year's Olympics in London.
Engineer Sani Ndanusa, the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), announced that they had chosen Sebastian Coe and Paula Radcliffe's former university as its base following a meeting in Abuja.
Ndanusa is a graduate of Loughborough.
He obtained an MSc in Waste and Water Engineering there before returning to Nigeria where he worked for the Niger State Water Board and then entered politics, serving as his country's Minister of Youths, Sports and Social Development for two years.
Britain announced last April that they planned to base the majority of its team there in the weeks leading up to London and that it would be the location for its kitting out process, meaning that nearly all competitors chosen for the Olympics will have to pass through it to receive their uniforms for the Games.
Japan had already identified Loughborough as the ideal place for its team to prepare before London and had signed a deal as long ago as May 2009 to train there.
Loughborough claims to have the largest campus of any European university equipped with world-class performance facilities across a multi-range of sports and plans further improvements in the run-up to London 2012.
The University also claims to have the best integrated sports development environment in the world and is home to some of the country's leading coaches, sports scientists and support staff.
It is able to offer training for 22 of the possible 26 sports and disciplines that will be on the London 2012 programme.
"Our number one priority is to ensure that Nigerian athletes have the best possible preparation environment," said Ndanusa.
"We are confident that Loughborough University's excellence in the field of sport will be of huge benefit to Team Nigeria's aspiration of performing creditably at the Games.
"The co-location of major teams will create a unique environment, with Loughborough likely to have the highest concentration of Olympic activity."
Nigeria were represented in ten sports at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, sending a total of 52 individual competitors plus two football teams.
They won four medals, a silver in the men's football, and three bronze.
Nigeria is hoping to end a 16-year wait in London for another Olympic gold medal since they won they celebrated their first champions in Atlanta in 1996 when Chioma Ajunwa won the women's long jump and the men's football team, including Jay-Jay Okocha and Nwankwo Kanu, beat Argentina in the final.