By Modupe Oremule
Lagos – Alfred Ohimain, the Chairman, Lagos State Karate Association (LSKA), on Monday said it would always prepare athletes and coaches adequately toward representing the country in future competitions.
Ohimain told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the association and the Karate Federation of Nigeria (KFN) had the task of identifying and nurturing athletes.
He said that accomplishing the task became imperative now that the sport had been included in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.
“Lagos being a state reputed for excellence will prepare its athletes to conquer the nation and see what happens afterward.
“The reality has now hit us since the sport has been included in the Olympics; we have a lot of work to do to ensure that athletes participated in the Olympics.
“Attending Olympic Games is the highest point of achievement for any athlete,’’ he said.
Ohimain added that the state had immense talents that would be ready to represent the country if called upon.
He said the association would in 2017 retrain its coaches and referees, adding that it would hold competitions to rank athletes.
“It will starts from retraining of coaches. We are going to try our best using local resource persons but we are also looking at inviting foreigners to know what is trending in the sport.
“Gathering funds though isn’t easy but we have been having qualifiers at the state level to know how to rank our athletes.
“So, that at the end, we will be able to know who is in what weight class and when called up by KFN, we will not be running here and there to know their classes,’’ he said.
He also said that the association was looking inward to organise tournaments because most corporate organisations were cutting down expenses.
“As much as I would like to have the big tournaments with banners, we have to look inward and organise competitions that we can do with the barest minimum cost.
“At the moment in the nation, everyone is cutting down on expenses and it is affecting sports, but we really need to focus on the athletes and their performances.
“We will try our best to organise competitions sponsored by the members of the board and also continue to push for sponsorships.
“It is not in Karate’s philosophy to lie down and die, so, we will continue to push. And we appreciate those that have shown that they love the sport,’’ he said.