Team Nigeria Must Improve, Coaches Charge Athletes

Three coaches have called for improvement in Nigeria’s performance in athletics in spite of its achievement at the recent IAAF World Championships in Moscow.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports Nigeria won two medals – silver and bronze – from the event which held from Aug. 10 to Aug. 18.

Twenty athletes represented the country at the competition. The two medals were won by Blessing Okagbare.

Okagbare won silver in the long jump at 6.99m and bronze in 200m at 22.53 seconds.

The coaches, Harrison Momoh, Sule Olademeji and Isaac Osagie, told NAN that although they were glad that Nigeria broke the medal drought at the championships, the country’s performance needed improvement.

Momoh, a retired athletics coach, said that the performance of Nigerian athletes at the competition showed that they were not fully prepared.

“It is a good thing we were able to win two medals, but looking at the fact that we had 20 athletes, that is a poor result.

“I hope that it will not repeat itself; we should not depend on one athlete alone,’’ he said.

Olademeji, a jump coach, urged the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to improve on the performance of its athletes.

“We can say congrats to Nigeria that we have been able to break the jinx after 14 years.

“We should take it from there and move forward with the support of the government and the media.

“It is regrettable that only Okagbare was able to win the medals for the country,” Olademeji said.

Osagie, a sprint coach, hailed Okagbare, and urged improvement in the performance of all Nigerian athletes.

“People will feel disappointed that only Okagbare was able to win medals, but the truth is that the AFN is rebuilding.

“It will take some time for the country to begin to see other athletes performing especially in track and field events,” he said.

NAN reports that Nigeria occupied the 24th position in the championships’ medal table.  A total of 38 countries participated.