FOR the first time in the history of the All Africa Games, the Supreme Council of Sports in Africa, SCSA, would have to determine the winner of the Games which ended in Algiers on Monday. Unlike in the past when the winner is determined by the medals table which is updated daily in accordance with the medals of various sports, hosts Algeria set another precedent by declaring themselves winner at the closing ceremony and sent tongues wagging and different countries contesting the authenticity of the result.

Egypt, by the calculations of many countries had won the Games followed by Algeria, South Africa and Nigeria but the Egyptians received a rude shock when the hosts announced that they had won the Games. An enraged Egyptian official contested the announcement but could not do anything in the midst of security men who were armed to the teeth. Delegation officials could not do much because of the fact that most contingents had to travel the following day.

Nigeria’s head of delegation, Dr Amos Adamu was shocked by the development. “I know that host countries want to win but I’ve never seen this type of desperation in wanting to come first. From the beginning when they muddled the accreditation process, I knew they were up to some tricks. And by the time they refused to update the medals table, it dawned on us that they had some tricks up their sleeves. What can one say of the number of events that they cancelled without recourse to other countries?” he asked.

The Algerians frustrated Nigeria most when they cancelled power-lift events where they knew our strength lied. In Disabled Table Tennis for instance, Nigeria had been dominating. During the Games in Abuja, out of the 21 gold medals, Nigeria won 16, and in the Disabled Power Lifting, out of the 20 gold medals Nigeria won 14 and in the Sprint event of the same disabled out of the 4 gold medal Nigeria won 4, making a clean sweep.

The Algerians had to cancel these events to checkmate Nigeria’s gold medal chances. Even when they introduced Games for Dwarfs, they never knew that Nigeria would come with the Pigmies. On events day when they called Nigeria and the dwarfs struttered out, they used Arabic to announce the cancellation of the event.

They did not stop at that. Strange events like Rowing, Sailing, Water Polo, Equestrian and Fencing with lot of medals attached to it were introduced and even when they did not meet up with the specific number of countries to participate in such sports, they made a solo event thereby awarding medals to themselves. Officials of the Supreme Council of Sports who were present could not do anything to stop the charade in Algiers but only barked that they would meet later to review the events of 9th All Africa Games which has gone into history as the ‘best‘ in the history of the events. Algeria hosted in 1978 but those who were present credited them with excellent provision of facilities and conduct.