British High Commissioner in, Dr. Richard Montgomery has heaped praise on Team Nigeria’s standout performance at the 2026 Commonwealth Games, hosting the country’s athletes and officials at a special reception in Abuja to celebrate a campaign that saw the nation return home with 24 medals from Glasgow.

Montgomery told the delegation that their achievement had exceeded even the High Commission’s own expectations, noting that with roughly 200 medallists across the entire Commonwealth Games, Nigeria’s athletes had claimed a striking share of that total on their own.

Team Nigeria concluded its campaign with 10 gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals, finishing seventh overall and cementing its position as Africa’s best-performing nation at the Games, ahead of rivals including South Africa and Kenya.

Responding on behalf of the delegation, Nigerian officials thanked the British High Commission for hosting the reception and for its support throughout the Games, singling out the swift processing of visas that allowed the country’s athletes, officials and support staff to travel to Glasgow without disruption.

The gesture was described as instrumental in ensuring Team Nigeria could focus fully on competition once in Scotland.

Nigeria’s outing in Glasgow has been widely celebrated back home as one of the country’s finest Commonwealth Games campaigns in years, with officials crediting the result to a combination of deliberate planning, stronger athlete welfare structures and improved government backing for sports development.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the National Sports Commission have both pointed to the leadership of NSC Chairman Shehu Dikko and Director General Bukola Olopade as central to creating an environment in which athletes could compete with confidence, while also crediting the Tinubu administration’s broader push to revive Nigerian sports for helping restore belief among the country’s competitors.

With celebrations still ongoing weeks after the Games concluded, the Abuja reception served as both a diplomatic thank-you and a reaffirmation of the strong ties between Nigeria and the United Kingdom, as attention now turns to sustaining this momentum ahead of future international competitions.

Photo Credit: Punch Newspaper