The West African University Games ( French: Jeux Universitaires Ouest Africains), also known as the ECOWAS Students Games, is a multi-sport event between student-athletes from West African universities. [1] The competition was first held in 1965 in Ibadan, Nigeria, and has been held on a roughly once ever four to six years since 1989. [2]
The idea for the competition emerged from a conference of West African universities in 1964 in Ibadan. [3]
The last edition to be held was the 14th at the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, lasting from 31 October to 12 November 2018. [4] The 13th edition of the games in 2012 involved 1,443 athletes from 56 West African Universities (6 non-competing) from 5 West African nations. A total of 13 Olympic sports were contested. [5]
Games | Year | Host country | Host city | Dates | Sports | Nations | Competitors | Universities | Medal table winner | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I | 1965 | Nigeria | Ibadan [6] | |||||||||||
II | 1967 | Ghana | Legon ( Accra) [6] | |||||||||||
III | 1969 | Sierra Leone | Freetown [6] | |||||||||||
IV | 1971 | Nigeria | Lagos [6] | |||||||||||
V | 1973 | Ghana | Kumasi [6] | |||||||||||
VI | 1975 | Nigeria | Ifẹ [6] | |||||||||||
VII | 1977 | Ivory Coast | Yamoussoukro [6] | |||||||||||
VIII | 1989 | Burkina Faso | Ouagadougou [6] | |||||||||||
IX | 1995 | Nigeria | Benin City [6] | |||||||||||
X | 1999 | Benin | Cotonou [6] | |||||||||||
XI | 2003 | Burkina Faso | Ouagadougou [3] | |||||||||||
XII | 2008 | Ghana | Accra [3] | 43 | ||||||||||
XIII | 2012 | Nigeria | Ilorin [5] | 27 March – 7 April | 13 | 5 | 1,443 | 56 | ||||||
XIV | 2018 | Nigeria | Port Harcourt [4] | 31 October – 12 November | XV | 2023 | Nigeria | Ile-Ife [7] | 17 December - 21 December |
Ife
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).