Athletes Applaud Organisers

As this year’s Olympic trials end today in Calabar, Nigeria’s home-based and home-based athletes, who featured at the athletics meet have hailed the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN for staging the event.

They said AFN’s decision  to stage the event at this time of the year was excellent, noting that if the trials had been staged earlier than now, most of the foreign athletes would  have missed it.

Noah Aku, who combines sports with education in the US, said he was elated with the chance to compete with other athletes on the home front.

” I was very happy when I heard of the time of the trials, because it’s not easy coming back to the country at odd times. For example, some of my colleagues in high schools could not attend the trials of their respective countries because of the time fixed by their federations. But, I know the AFN carried out a careful study of our programme before picking this time, it’s very good for some of us”.

Winner of the 20km Walk Women’s final, Queensley Asedo of the Nigeria Police Force, who won in a time of 1hr 49m 13secs, also praised the AFN board for taking into cognisance the tight schedule of all the athletes before staging the trials.

“As a Police Officer, I still have to combine my training with athletics, if the trials were not held now, some of our compatriots may have missed out, and this event would not have been this competitive.”

One of the five Nigerian quatermilers to hit 46secs, Onakoya Biola added that the AFN deserves commendation for it’s organisational ability.

The University of Texas  undergraduate said “I left Nigeria in January and thought I won’t be able to make the trials, but here I am. I thank the nation for this rare opportunity to compete with my compatriots.”