LAGOS – Jimmy Adeniyi, the Head of Coaching Department, Nigeria Institute of Sports (NISports), on Tuesday urged the government to ensure early preparations of athletes ahead of the forthcoming All Africa Games.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Games is scheduled to hold from Sept. 4 to Sept 14 in Congo Brazzaville.
Adeniyi told NAN in Lagos that it was only through early preparations that the country could perform excellently well at the biennial Games.
He said that funds should be made available to ensure the early camping of athletes for thorough preparation.
“Aside from the fact that we are preparing for All Africa Games, I am an apostle of early preparation, the first thing should be early release of funds.
“Funds should be injected to the system for things that are to be done to be done right, once funds are injected or released, there will be preparation, once preparation are ongoing then we should set target.
“We should set target, how many gold medals are we aspiring to win and how many sports are we fielding, are we parading at the sports fiesta, these are things that will help us to go a long way in actualising our dream.’’
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Jimmy also advised the National Sports Commission to intensify its effort in educating athletes on the effect of performance enhancing drugs ahead of the competition.
“Its highly incredibly devastating to note that some of our sports men and women still indulge in this illicit act, I think they ought to be educated on the fact that performance enhancing drugs are not proper for athletes to depend on, because at the end of the day they are the loser.
“And it cast aspersion on the image of the nation, deals a deadly blow on the psyche oF the individual. I want to advise proper monitoring should be done.
“How do we carry out these proper monitoring, we should engage the service of sports scientists, sports medicine doctors to ensure that these athletes are well tested, so that they do not go out to disgrace us.’’
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