By Ben Efe, in  New Delhi
Nigerian athletes at the Commonwealth Games were showered with their winning bonuses yesterday and the shopping malls in the Yamuna Bank area of New Delhi made brisk business.

SWEAT MERCHANT•••Nigeria's Sinvie Boltic celebrates after defeaing Canadian Korey Jarvis in the 96kg men's freestyle wrestling final at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi Boltic won the gold . Photo: AFP

This was after the National Sports Commission made good its promise, to reward all the athletes that achieved excellent result in the Games. The gold medalists were rewarded with a 5,800 dollars winning bonus, the silver medalist got 3,800 dollars, while the bronze winners got 2,500 dollars for their efforts.

All other athletes who reached the finals and the semi-finals of their events got 800 dollars and 500 dollars respectively. The coaches were not left out of the dollar rain. Those whose athletes won gold cashed 6,000 dollars.

“I personally supervised the payments this morning (Wednesday). This is because our athletes have done well and they deserve the reward,” said Sports Minister and NSC chairman, Ibrahim Isa Bio.
He said that Nigerian athletes had done creditably despite the fact that the country brought a small contingent to the commonwealth Games.
“We brought 137 athletes in seven sports and we were able to win 11 gold medals so far. Previously Nigeria had largest contingent, but we had to cut down and work towards achieving result with a small contingent,” said the Minister in New Delhi yesterday.

Nigeria’s gold medal haul will increase to 11 today if Nwaka Oputa beats Australia’s Kathrine Marrow in the women’s wheelchair table tennis finals.

If that happens, the performance in New Delhi 2010 would equal the 1994 outing in Victoria Canada. It was Nigeria’s best performance in her participation in the Commonwealth Games.