Sports Minister, Tamuno Danagogo has predicted that Team Nigeria will win lots of medals at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, but 1996 Olympic Games gold medalist, Chioma Ajunwa- Opara says giving the preparation on ground, it may be a huge task for Team Nigeria to excel in Scotland.
Ajunwa-Opara said,’’Nigerian sports have always been be-devilled with poor and late preparations and this have always conspired to rob Nigeria of laurels at international events. Even when the country performed relatively well, sometimes it was as a result of the doggedness and determination of the athletes.’’
The long jump gold medalist said there should be adequate preparation which must start now although belated if Team Nigeria must get something out of the commonwealth Games.
However, she said administrators, sportsmen and women, who won laurels at international competitions despite the shoddy state of training before championships, feel Nigeria would have done better if there were adequate preparations.
Speaking against this backdrop, Nigeria’s first Olympic Games gold medalist, Chioma Ajunwa-Opara, who described her feat as an act of God, said there was need for Nigeria to rise above ‘poor preparations’ before major championships like the Commonwealth Games.
Ajunwa came back from a drug ban to cart home the women’s long jump gold medal with a jump of 7.12m (on her first attempt) in Atlanta in 1996.
According to her, “Preparation has always been the issue but our time was better than what is happening now because we stayed in camp for about four months before competitions. It is not easy to put a team together in a week and perform miracles. We always believe that athletes will give us the right results when we have not done the right thing by preparing well.”
1984 Olympian, Jerry Okorodudu on his part says his wards in boxing are training hard to make serious impact at the games, but wants immediate closed camping in order to win gold medal.
“Late approach to sporting events has been our tradition but I believe we can break this jinx. If we must do well, early preparations in boxing athletics and other team events is key. “In any team event, it is good to get the players together for a long time to blend together and understand the chemistry of how the coach wants them to do.
“In order to consolidate on what we have achieved so far, we need to develop new talents to replace the ageing ones. In doing so, we need to consolidate and plan ahead.
“We need a permanent structure that will propel athletes from primary to university levels’’, he said.
A Commonwealth Games-bound athlete who pleaded for anonymity quipped: ‘’we are training, but no competition to test what you have learnt. It is only in active mode that you know where you needed to improve.
‘The Commonwealth is almost here, nobody is asking us how our preparation is going, how we are surviving, yet when we come back with no medals, they will pounce on us forgetting nothing was invested on us.
‘‘The Commonwealth Games is a lot easier to win than the Olympics or the World Championships; it will be disastrous if we fail to win anything due to inadequate preparation’’, he said
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