Abuja – Mrs Hauwa-Kulu Akinyemi, Director, Federations and Elite Athletes Department (FEAD), National Sports Commission (NSC), has said that provision and rehabilitation of sporting facilities is key to the nation’s participation in multi medal winning sports.
Akinyemi said this in Abuja in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), stressing that there was need to rehabilitate the nation’s sports facilities for optimal performance.
NAN reports that NSC had commenced the rehabilitation of the swimming pool in various stadia in the country, following President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to NSC for the country to participate in multi medal sports.
According to Akinyemi, the multi medal sports which includes swimming cannot be revived in a short period to guarantee an Olympic medal.
“If you want to win an Olympic medal in swimming, you need long term planning where you groom the children from very young age.
“Yes, the President has given us an order, and this is why we are trying to make sure that the swimming pools we have in Nigeria are put into good condition.
“The Aquatic Federation will begin to do grassroots swimming programme from under-7.
“In swimming, an athlete that hopes to win medal at the age of 16 should be able to make some kicks as early as five years,’’ she said.
Akinyemi said that building swimmers was capital intensive, hence the need for private partnership.
“The private sector does not need to give the NSC money; we can give technical input and they can actually spend the money themselves,’’ she added.
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The NSC Director of FEAD said the commission had directed the aquatic federation to come up with a short, medium and long term programme for the NSC to implement. (NAN)
