To many, the University of Ibadan is a familiar name only in academics and related competitions, nothing more. However, in the just concluded Zone B NUGA games preliminaries, UI displayed sheer dominance over her opponents and extended her prowess beyond academics into the realms of sports and athletics.

The pre-NUGA games commenced on Tuesday, 25th January 2022 with the arrival of the representatives of participating universities on the UI campus. The schools are Ladoke Akintola University of Technology(LAUTECH) Ogbomoso, First Technical University, Lead City University and the host, University of Ibadan.

The games commenced officially on Wednesday, 26th January 2022 with the teams facing off in exciting sporting activities. The UI team saw off Lead City University in a 2-0 win. In another thrilling encounter, it was a landslide victory as the UI basketball team humiliated First Technical University in a 63-5 demolition.

Day two of the games saw UI qualify for the men’s badminton. Also, the UI team narrowly defeated LAUTECH 22-20 in basketball, 2-0 in volleyball and 16-12 in handball. UI further strengthen her qualification chances in football by defeating First Technical University 2-nil. Later that day, the UI female football team also defeated their counterparts from LAUTECH 2-nil, and this victory sealed their qualification for the NUGA games.

The third day of the games commenced with UI “bossing” the track events. In the 100m race, UI came first and second in the male and female categories, first and the second position in the 400m hurdles male and first position in the 400m hurdles female. The win also extended to the 4x100m relay, 800m race and the 3000m endurance race. The highlight of the day was the encounter between the male UI football team and their LAUTECH counterparts. Both teams had earlier won their matches against First Technical University and Lead City University, so they were both tied on six points and had to battle out for the top spot to qualify for the NUGA games. LAUTECH only needed a draw as they already had an advantage over UI on goal difference. The match ended 1-nil in favour of UI but not without drama. Violence broke out in the LAUTECH camp as a fight ensued after a long disagreement on the introduction of a ball boy by UI. The series of violent events halted the match. Normalcy was restored, the match resumed, and UI then went on to grab the winner minutes later. 

As it stands, UI has qualified in the following categories for the NUGA’22 games which will be held later in the year with UNILAG being the host- Football (male and female), Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, Taekwondo, Judo, Swimming, Chess, Badminton and Squash.