Abuja – Hauwa-Kulu Akinyemi, the Director, Federations and Elite Athletes Department, Ministry of Youths and Sports, on Thursday said Nigeria’s strategic plans for the Rio 2016 Olympics remained intact.
Akinyemi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the ministry had prepared and was looking at the sports in which Nigeria have comparative advantages.
“Our plans are still intact. We have our strategic plans towards Rio and we are working towards the realisation of all the items that are in our strategic plans.
“So, we don’t have any problem. What we have in our strategic plans is to look at all the sports that we have qualified for so far and do a comparative analysis.
“We will look at our performances in those sports. For now, we are concentrating on four sports and some events.’’
Akinyemi listed the four sports as track and field, football, wrestling and boxing.
“This does not mean that other sports cannot spring up surprises.
“Our judgment is based on our performance in those sports and doing a comparative analysis of what other countries are doing in the same sports,’’ she said.
On the poor outing of Nigerian athletes at the recent world indoor championships in the U.S., Akinyemi said none of the Nigerian athletes at the competition was an Olympic athlete.
Akinyemi however said she was optimistic that Nigeria would perform better at the Rio 2016 Olympics than it did at the London 2012 Olympics, where Nigeria won no medal.(NAN)