Athletics Nigeria director claims 2013 victories ‘not a fluke’ – AthleticsAfrica
Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Nigeria

Athletics Nigeria director claims 2013 victories ‘not a fluke’

Silver medalist Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women's Long Jump final during Day Two of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 11, 2013 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Silver medalist Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women's Long Jump final during Day Two of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 11, 2013 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The technical director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Navy Commodore [link id=”148″ tax=”post_tag” text=”Omatseye Nesiama” target=”_blank”], has declared that the recent successes for Nigeria in continental athletics championships are no fluke but dividends of concerted efforts by the Federation as well as other concerned government sports institutions.

The AFN technical chief was speaking on the backdrop of the latest achievement in Mauritius where Nigeria finished tops to complete victories in the CAA Africa Youth, Junior and Senior athletics championships

“I thank God once again for giving us victory in the [junior] championship; topping the medals table with nine gold, seven silver and three bronze medals,” said Commodore Nesiama.

“This makes me very happy that in my time as Technical Director, we have won the continental championships at the senior, junior and youth levels. It cannot be a fluke that this has happened within the space of one year.

“There is something that is definitely good in what we are doing whether we want to accept it or not. We also recognise that there is still a lot of room to further improve on our performances in all departments of the sport.”

Going forward Nesiama stated that he planned take off of the High Performance Centres in the country is a sure good step to achieve more successes in the years ahead and that all hands must be on deck to make the imitative a huge success.

“I am calling on the NSC to step up the processes of appointing a National Performance Director and other Sport’s specific Performance Directors as a matter of urgency. We in the AFN already have a reasonably good foundation laid for such persons appointed to build up on.

“The technical committee under my leadership is rearing and ready in all respects to work perfectly within the context of the High Performance system for the enhancement of our sports, ” he added.

Have Your Say: Do you think what the Technical Director said had merits or was Nigeria was just lucky to have very good athletes at this time? Leave a reply below.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Meet The Authors

Website | + Posts

Mr Eludini is a Lagos-based journalist and news researcher with a passion for athletics and football. Tunde is a former 234NEXT reporter and covers the sports beat for the Premium Times newspaper. He provides track and field content for AthleticsAfrica.

You May Also Like

Nigeria

Sprinter Grace Nwokocha ran an outstanding anchor leg with 9.95 split to pulled the Nigerian women's 4x100m relay quartet back into contention for third...

Nigeria

Favour Ashe and Grace Nwokwocha Saturday claimed their first national titles on Day two of action at the 2022 AFN Nigerian Championships in Benin...

Galleria

Photo Gallery of the AFN Nigeria World Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games Trials - Benin 2022

RSA

South African Athletics team return with 36 medals from the 22nd CAA African Senior Championships in Mauritius on Tuesday.

Click to access the login or register cheese