Lagos – The Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) said on Monday that it would open camping for seven Olympic-bound wrestlers this week.
The federation said it could no longer wait for the pre-Olympic camping planned by the Federal Ministry of Sports, which had yet to take off.
The President of the NWF, Daniel Igali, made the announcement in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
He lamented that the ministry’s pre-Olympic camping was getting too late to take off with the Olympic Games drawing closer.
“The federation can no longer wait for the Ministry of Sports’ pre-Olympic official camping. We’re planning our camping to commence this week.
“Plans are being concluded to invite our seven Olympic Games-bound wrestlers to camp.
“The Olympics would hold in August and preparations for camping and even for training tours are yet to commence.’’
Igali stated that the date fixed earlier by the ministry and communicated to the federation for the commencement of camping had lapsed.
“Our wrestlers will remain at the federation’s camp, pending the time the ministry comes up with its camp. The Games is at hand and the wrestlers ought to have been in camp.
“We can’t continue to wait for the ministry because the longer the wrestlers stay out of training, the more work to be done on them.
“At present, the wrestlers are training individually in their states but that’s not good enough. We need to bring them all together and train them collectively under watchful eyes.’’
Igali described the Olympics as a serious business that required total planning to achieve something meaningful.
“This is the highest point an athlete can aim at in his or her career. Being called an Olympian is not an easy task.
“I want my wrestlers not just to be called Olympians but to have medals to show for it,’’ he said.
Seven wrestlers, two males and five females qualified for the Games.
The two male are Amas Daniel and Soso Tamarau.
The females are Odunayo Adekuruoye, Hannah Reuben, Mercy Genesis, Blessing Oborududu and Aminat Adeniyi. (NAN)
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