Abuja – The Nigeria Aquatics Federation (NAF) has identified lack of funding and training as factors hindering Nigerian swimmers from performance creditably at international competitions.
The Secretary-General of the federation, Mrs Thecla Opara, stated this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
Opara said Nigerian swimmers won second place at the just concluded 13th African Swimming Confederation (CANA) Championship in Senegal because the athletes did not have sufficient funds and adequate participation in competitions.
“If there was adequate funding, the swimmers would have been kept in camp for at least three months before the championship.
“But you know the situation of the country now, things are not moving well for some time, but we believe that it will not be permanent; it is just for some time.
“But if we are given adequate funding and had exposed these swimmers to a longer training period, they would excel.’’
Opara stated that the country has no divers and that the federation has been trying to groom young swimmers to become divers in future.
“The diving pool has not been in use because we do not have divers in Nigeria.
“We do not have divers that is why we do not use it.
“What we are trying to do is to develop some of our young swimmers to see if they can learn to dive.
“But now in Nigeria we do not have divers, but we are trying to groom the younger ones to see if they can excel in that aspect.’’ (NAN)
