The 21st edition of the Commonwealth Games will kick off on April 4, 2018 in the Gold Coast, Australia. Among the Nigerians getting warmed up to impress at various events will be the country’s first female university director of sports, Dr Cecilia Arinye, who has received an invitation to officiate at the games.

The Nation reports that Arinye is the only Nigerian invited in that capacity. As a blue badge international umpire, she’ll be officiating table tennis at the games.

This invitation is obviously an offshoot of her participation in the last edition of the games in 2014 where she became the first black woman to officiate at the table tennis event. She was also the first black woman to officiate at the Summer Paralympics during the Rio 2016 Paralympics Games.

Since she became an umpire in 2007, Arinye has officiated in numerous international events sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). Currently the Director of Sports at the University of Lagos, she helped the institution achieve their best NUGA Games performance in 2014 when UNILAG finished second.

Arinye with a UNILAG student-athlete (Photo: Titans Basket)

 

Credit: konbini.com

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