27th April, 2012
Nigeria’s number two wheelchair tennis player, Jude Uwazie, has scored low the standard of wheelchair tennis in the country, saying that the sport needs more attention from the government.
“The truth is that the standard of wheelchair tennis is low in Nigeria. Many of us that travel often for international competitions are always amazed at the height that the sport has attained in other countries,” said Uwazie, billed to represent Nigeria in May at the World Team Games in Korea.
He said “We don’t have adequate equipment for our training sessions in Nigeria. The situation is so bad that we have to do our training sessions in turns because we don’t even have enough wheelchairs available for training.
The wheelchair tennis star said that it is important for the athletes to have sufficient training equipment to give their best at international tourneys.
“Having standard training equipment in abundance is key to our success in any competition. There is no way that we can compete at the same level with our counterparts from countries if we don’t have standard training equipment.
“All we need from the government is for it to play its own part by providing modern training equipment for us. That is when we will be able to play our own part by doing the country proud whenever we go for competitions abroad,’ said Uwazie.
—Bimbo Ajayi