The Death Of Nigerian Sports And A Walk Down Memory Lane

[achuzia-the-air-raid]

The Death Of Nigerian Sports And A Walk Down Memory Lane

SATURDAY, 22 AUGUST 2009 03:38 WRITTEN BY AKINTOKUNBO A ADEJUMO

As the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Berlin come to an end, I would like to moan (again) about the demise of Nigerian sports. With the ascent and domination of Jamaica in world athletics, especially in track and field events, it is sad that Nigeria went to this major definitive world sports event and will return with not a single medal, whatever the colour.

There we are glued in front of our television sets shouting Usain Bolt, Debbie Ferguson, Shelley-Ann Fraser, etc on, but not a Nigerian name to shout on in any of the finals. (Sorry, we did hear Nigerian names like Phillips Idowu, Marilyn Okoro and Christine Ohuruogu, but sadly they are not running for Nigeria) Another wasteful trip; another exercise in futility; another disappointment. I bet there will be more Nigerian sports officials than athletes themselves, and the plane home will be full of luxurious goods for the officials, while months later, athletes will start crying that they have not been paid their allowances. The story of our life!

Hear this from NEXT of 21 August 2009 “Only those without knowledge of athletics will be surprised at the Team Nigeria's failure at the ongoing Berlin IAAF World Athletics Championship. Their poor performance was caused by the Solomon Ogba-led board, which failed to do what was necessary in bringing the best out of the team….. The last time we won medals at the World Championship was Sevilla ‘99. We won three medals because Oluyemi Adeyemi-Wilson allowed the technical people to do their job. He put in place a sound elite programme and a good youth and developmental programme. We also won a gold medal and silver in athletics with the programme at the Sydney 2000 Games. Ogba needs to read Adeyemi's script and act on it, or else 2010 Commonwealth Games will be a repeat of Berlin 2009”.

Of course, we have long known that sports in Nigeria is long moribund, fuelled by corrupt, visionless and inept officials. In fact Nigerian sport died with the late Isaac Akioye, the last Director-General of the National Sports Commission of note to be worthy of the title. The moment that epitome of corruption and ineptitude, Dr Amos Adamu clambered abroad the gravy train that was the sports ministry; it was a downward spiral for Nigerian sports. The sports fell like a lead weight thrown from a 40-storey building. Nothing, nobody could stop its fall, because the people in charge do not care, except their own pockets and will not allow those who do care to try and change it.

Olukayode Thomas (Playthegame.com of 09.08.07) in his article, The Sorry State of Nigerian Sports, wrote “It is shocking that officials of NSC are not concerned that about a decade ago, for every eight lanes in the women 400m at either the European circuit or the IAAF Grand Prix, it was certain that four of the athlete would be Nigerians.Then we had three consistent 49.00 secs runners in Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo, Charity Opara and Fatimah Yusuf. The last of the four, Bisi Afolabi was then a consistent 50.00 secs runner. But officials of NSC are not bothered by any of the above. Nor are they bothered that a few years ago, Nigerian female sprinters like Mary Onyali, Gloria Alozie, Christy Okpara, Beatrice Utondu, Ajunwa, Mary Tombiri etc. rivalled the likes of Gwen Torrence, Gail Devers and others for honours in major games and championships.

They have forgotten that not too long ago Olapade Adeniken, the Ezinwa twin brothers, Davidson and Osmond, Daniel Effiong. Francis Obikwelu, Seun Ogunkoya, Sunday Bada, Clement Chukwu, etc. were among the best sprinters and quarter-milers in the world. They also don't seem to remember that apart from the Americans, Nigeria's relay teams were the most dreaded in the world not too long ago. NSC officials do not realise that unless they go back to organising monthly classics and other developmental programmes and the American school system, we will never get back to where we were before, talk less of surpassing it.

It was local developmental programmes that led to the discovery of such phenomenal talents like Ajunwa, Bada, Afolabi, Ogunkoya, Obikwelu, Alozie, Nduka Awazie, Angela Atede, Rosa Collins, Innocent Asonze, Opara, Deji Aliu and others too numerous to mention, while the American school system gave as the likes of Ogunkoya-Omotayo, Onyali, Chidi, Imoh, the Ezinwa Brothers, Pat Itanyi, Fatimah Yusuf, Innocent Egbunike, Adewale Olukoju, Chima Ugwu, Vivian Chukwuemeka and others.

NSC top shots have not thought it wise to revive the programmes of the past, which worked so well. What appears paramount to them are promotional events, and obviously the megabucks that goes with them”.

I would like to take my fellow countrymen and women down memory lane with some facts about sports in Nigeria not too long ago; and maybe we will wake up to how desperate our sports situation is. It made me proud and cry at the same time.

Nigerian athletes have been appearing at major athletics meeting since 1952. At the All-Africa Games at Brazzaville (former Congo), they piled up an enviable record; where they won one event after the other and came back home with 9 gold, 5 silver and 4 bronze medals. Jumoke Bodunrin was one of the stars of that game, and she won the title of “ Africa’s fastest woman”.

In the 1950 Games, Joshua Majekodunmi of Nigeria & Alan Paterson of Scotland tied for the silver medal in the High Jump, however Nigerian athletes first participated officially in the Commonwealth Games in 1954 and they won several medals. In the High Jump, Emmanuel Ifeajuna (yes, the same Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna who was a hero of the the first coup d'etat in Nigeria) created a new British Empire and Commonwealth Games record by clearing the bar at 6 ft. 8 in.; Nafio Osagie took the bronze in the same event. The Nigerian team also set a new record in the 4 X 100 yards relay by recording the same time of 41.4 seconds as Canada very narrowly beat them into the silver medal position. Another narrow defeat which gave Nigeria a silver medal was on the Hop, Step and Jump (now called Triple Jump) in which Peter Esiri jumped 50 ft 0 ½ in., one inch less than the winner. Nigeria’s third silver medal was won in the Long Jump by Karim A B Olowu. That same team also won 3 bronze medals; one each in High Jump, Long Jump and Boxing and came fourth in the 100 yards.

On the whole, it was a successful debut for Nigeria, coming fourth overall behind England, Canada and Australia. In the 1958 Commonwealth games, Nigeria again took silver in the 4 X 100 m Relay, took bronze in 1974 but finally won this event at the 1982 Games.

At the Commonwealth Games held in Kingston, Jamaica in August 1966, Nigeria carried away more than half of the gold medals for boxing, won the glamorous long distance races, shone in the sprints and broke several records.

In boxing, Eddie Ndukwu (bantamweight) won gold; Anthony Andeh (lightweight) won gold; Fatai Ayinla (lightweight) - I know him personally – won a silver medal, while Nojim Maiyegun, who had won a bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics and had been expected to win a gold at Kingston, bravely went through the semi-final with a dislocated shoulder to win a bronze medal in the light middleweight class.

In athletics, Nigeria did even better, claiming 5 medals and a new Commonwealth record. Sam Igun, the team captain and veteran of many international competitions won 2 medals; silver in the High Jump, and smashed the Commonwealth triple jump record with a leap of 53 ft. 9 ¾ in to win the gold. Dr George Ogan clinched the silver to confirm Nigeria’s dominance in the same event.

Nigeria gained her third silver medal when Kingsley Agbabokha came second in the 440 yards hurdles. Unfortunately, Alfred Belleh lost a likely gold medal when he was disqualified in the 120 yards hurdles during the heats for making two false starts.

Although Nigeria finished 6th in the final of the 4 by 110 yards relay, with a time of 40.4 seconds, Nigeria was one of the countries who broke the Commonwealth record of 40.8 seconds.

David Ejoke came fourth in the 100 yards, but went on to win a bronze medal in the 220 yards with a time of 21 seconds.

The highlight of Nigeria’s remarkable performance was however, Violet Odogwu’s success in the women’s Long Jump. She won the bronze medal and had the distinction of being the only African woman to win a medal at the games and she also reached the finals of the 80 metres hurdles.

Overall, Nigeria won 3 gold; 4 silver and 3 bronze medals and came 7th out of the 36 countries which took part in the Games. There were 28 athletes, boxers and swimmers and it showed then in 1966, that Nigeria has a wealth of athletic talents which with more adequate training, facilities and more experience were likely to take her place among the leaders in the world of sports.We were on our way then, because in subsequent years, Nigerian sport was improving splendidly, nurtured by disciplined, sincere, honest, focused, dedicated and committed sports administrators such as the late Abraham Ordia, Isaac Akioye, Dan Enajekpo, Dr Awoture Eleyeae etc. They practically lived for athletics, a trait that is hard to come by in present-day managers.

(Picture below: Violet Odogwu)



(L-R: Eddie Ndukwu; Fatai Ayinla - not Nojim Maiyegun as printed; Sam Igun, Team Captain and David Ejoke)


(L-R: Dr George Ogan; Anthony Andeh; Kingsley Agbabokha and Nojim Maiyegun - not Fatai Ayinla as printed)


Then the roof, or rather the sky fell of Nigerian sports the moment the likes of Amos Adamu came in with their one main ambition – make as much money as you can. And they did make money.

Sometime in 1983, while I was doing my Master’s degree at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, I received a call from a reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. I guessed he got wind of me being the President of University of Manitoba’s International Students Organisation and a founder of the Nigerian Union of Manitoba. He asked me if I could appear on CBC TV to discuss the phenomenal success of Nigerian athletes who had participated in the World University Games held at Edmonton, Alberta that year. I did not even know that Nigeria was represented at the Games. He told me that Nigeria sent only 10 athletes and these athletes won 5 gold medals. I was proud, but hid my ignorance. I accepted and before I appeared on the show, I made sure I knew more about what happened.

In the 1983 World University Games; which was the debut year for this event by Nigeria, Chidi Imoh won gold in the 100 metres; Innocent Egbunike (now a coach in the United States) won gold in the 200 metres; Sunday Uti won gold in the 400 metres; Yusuf Ali won gold in the Long Jump and Ajayi Agbebaku won gold in the Triple Jump. All of them were of course based in the United States, most of them on Nigeria’s scholarship.

In subsequent years, Nigeria was to perform creditably at these University games. Other medals winners at these games are as below:

Men:

100 metres 200 m 400 m Hurdles

1985 – Chidi Imoh (Gold) 1991 – Daniel Phillips (Silver) 1885 – Henry Amike (Silver)

1989 – Olapade Adeniken (S)

1993 – Daniel Effiong (G)

Long Jump Triple Jump Discuss

1987 – Paul Emordi (S) 1983 – Ajayi Agbebaku (G) 1991 – Adewale Olukoju (G)

(Mentioned above) 1993 – Adewale Olukoju (S)

400 m

1985 – Innocent Egbunike (G); Sunday Uti (Bronze)

1987 - Moses Ugbisie (S)

1995 – Udeme Ekpeyong (S)

1997 – Clement Chukwu (G)

Women:

100 m 200 m 100 m Hurdles

1987 – Tina Iheagwam (B) 1987 – Mary Onyali (S) 1997 – Angela Atede (Gold)

1993 – Beatrice Utondu (B)

1995 – Mary Tombiri (B)

400 m 4 X 400 m Relay 4 X 100 m Relay

1985 – Sadia Showunmi (B) 1987 – Nigeria (B) 1987 – Nigeria (B)

1995 – Olabisi Afolabi (G) 1993 – Nigeria (B) 1993 – Nigeria (S)

199 – Doris Jacob (B) 1995 – Nigeria (B)

Nigeria went to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984 and came back home with a silver medal in boxing through the efforts of Peter Konyegwachie and a bronze from the 4 x 400m male team led by Innocent Egbunike.

At the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, Nigeria did marvellously well, winning five gold, 13 silver and seven bronze medals; a far improvement from previous outings. The returns from the games in Victoria, Canada even exceeded that of 1990, Nigerians returned home with 13 gold medals and many silver and bronze medals.

With the euphoria of the 1990 games, the country stormed the Barcelona Olympic Games in 1992 and again there was an improvement from previous records. The quartet of Olapade Adenikan, Chidi Imoh, Kayode Oluyemi and Davidson Ezinwa won the silver in the 4 x 100m, while the women led by the irrepressible Mary Onyali captured the bronze medal in the same event. Two Nigerian boxers also won silver medals. It was a moment of joy for all Nigerians. Football in the 90's took Nigeria to greater heights. Between 1990 and 1994, Nigeria won silver, bronze and gold medals in the biannual Africa Cup of Nations competition.

The country also held its own in athletics with impressive performance from the likes of S. O. Arogundade, A. Karimu Amu, Jimmy Omagbemi, Moses A.K. Ogun, Titus Erinle, Sydney Asiodu, Smart Akraka (Sprints); Peter Esiri, Eddy Akika and Julius Chigbolu (Jumps), the Ezenwa brothers (Osmond and David), Fatima Yusuf, Chioma Ajunwa - first Nigerian individual Olympic gold medallist (who was actually wholly helped by Segun Odegbami, ex-Eagles captain to achieve this), Falilat Ogunkoya - Olympic medallist, etc

The Seoul Olympics of 1988 was a disaster for Nigerian athletes. Again like in 1980, the athletes came back without a single medal. Worst still was the Green Eagles team which had gone to the games as favourite but completely lost out.

Today, sports like boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, basketball, volleyball, cycling and others are neglected not because there are no talents to be developed, but because government or corporate organisations have not moved in to fund them. The moment they do that, the hawks in National Sports Commission will start scrambling for the partitioning of the money.

Facilities and equipment are not left out. Yearly, millions are spent on stadium maintenance, but there is nothing to show for it. The National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, was once the envy of the whole world. It was once known as the Sports City, but today it is now called a Garbage City, with the compound turned into drinking dens at night and religious activities during the day.

Heaps and heaps of garbage litter the city. The situation in other stadiums across the country is not different. Management and administration of sports in Nigeria is way behind many Third World countries, talk less of Europe and America, while the coaching skills of most of our coaches are appalling.

The only thing that can save and revive Nigerian sports is for the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency in sports. It should look at how the administrators have managed the sector over the years with a view to restructuring it. Sports is too important to Nigeria's existence to be left at the hands of corrupt individuals, who hardly think of what is best for the country. (Thomas, 2007)

Again, the state of sports in the country shows how daft and unintelligent our politicians are. Sports, especially success in sports, remain one major unifying factor in this our country of diverse cultures and religions. In other Third World countries as diverse as ours, the politicians use sports to defuse unrest, to unify the cultures and religions; they use sports as a diversionary means to get the mind of the masses off their problems, and thereby able to concentrate on governing. Take football for instance, when Nigeria is involved in major competitions, that is when you know that we are actually united and patriotic and everybody, marginalised or not, start waving the green-white-green and shouting “Up Nigeria” and not “Up Niger Delta”, “Up Biafra” or “Up Oduduwa”.

Sports could be a tool for these inept politicians. If Nigeria wins in any sports event, we will not mind them taking the credit, although we know they have not contributed anything to such success.

In 1988, the Nigerian government developed a document to guide sports development for the nation. The National Sports Development Policy (Federal Republic of Nigeria 1989) outlined specific expectations in sports development by various units of the Nigerian society, such as local, state, and federal governments, educational institutions, clubs, and voluntary organizations. This policy was well-conceived and indicated that the government was aware of the role sports had in the development of the nation. The policy still has not been fully implemented, however, as is often the case with governmental policies in Nigeria.

Vision 2010 was a policy document developed by the Nigerian federal government to guide its activities in all areas of governance through the year 2010. In 1997, the final report of Vision 2010, as it related to sports development, was published. However, this document, like its predecessor, the National Sports Development Policy (1989), has not been implemented effectively. Therefore, it has not had significant impact on physical education programs in Nigeria. (Mgbor, 2006)

Sports, like many other areas of governance in Nigeria, have been neglected mainly due to corrupt and inept governance. There are no incentives for budding athletes; corrupt officials embezzle money meant for sports development; the sports facilities are ill-equipped or not even equipped at all; and the facilities themselves are deteriorating and underused; sports management and administration are poor and run by ill-trained, ill-motivated officials whose only purpose is that of making money, or at worst, are happy to have a job; competent sports administrators are not given a chance to input ideas and actions to effect changes, and are always shut out of decision making processes; and there are no longer grass-roots sports development in the primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to discover talents.

The problem can be reversed by addressing the above, but only by political will on the side of the government of Nigeria. Corporate help is needed and companies such as Shell, Globacom, MTN, etc are already doing their best, but are given very little encouragement or support by the government. In fact, the money these corporations pour into sports in Nigeria practically end up in the pockets of corrupt civil servants in the Sports ministries and other government officials.

In Nigeria of today, despite the economic downturn, there is no reason why each local government should not have a moderate sports stadium in its area, where schools in their respective areas can hold their annual inter-house sports, and local boys and girls can display their sports talents.

I was once opportune to be present at a seminar held at the Nigeria Institute for Sports, National Stadium, Lagos in 1999 where this question of grass-root sports development was put to the then Director-General of the NCS (guess who? The same Dr Amos Adamu) the man, without blinking an eyelid said there is no money. That was in 1999 when the current democratic dispensation began and we know the oil was gushing out and Nigeria was making a lot of money from oil, and politicians and civil servants alike were stealing the money. It was all I could do not to stone the man.

So can the current D-G, NSC, Chief Patrick Ekeji do better? I doubt it. He has been in the system for too long and was also a part of the problem. So it is unlikely that he can solve the problem. I recently read that he has expressed concern over the recent spate of poor performances by Nigerian athletes in major championships, and that the commission was already on top of the issue, believing that the country’s array of athletes should have done better in Berlin, Germany. He is really not saying anything new or that we do not know.

Greed and corruption always go well together. You really can’t separate them. They complement and motivate each other. When you have either or both, then the effect is ineptitude, negligence, mismanagement and generally poor administration. These are what we have in our sports administration, nay, general governance, today.

We can only hope.

http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/art ... -lane.html

[achuzia-the-air-raid]

THEY NEVER LISTENED!


EZINWA: ‘NIGERIA DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN A MEDAL!’

Posted: Mar 24, 2012


Former Nigerian sprinter, Osmond Ezinwa is pessimistic about the country’s chances to make any appreciable impact at the London 2012 Olympics.

Osmond and his twin brother Davidson, of the Ezinwa brothers fame together with Olapade Adenekan and Francis Obikwelu won a 4x100 silver medal relay for Nigeria at the 1997 World Athletics Championships in Athens, Greece.

He shares his past memories and equally foresees the future with Complete Sports Saturday’s ADEBOYE AMOSU ...



EARLY LIFE

I grew up in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, Nsukka precisely. I had a lovely childhood and it was really fun back then. As a young boy,I had a big heart. I always worked hard to do what people referred to as impossible which translated into the achievements I had on the track.

My twin brother, Davidson and I were popular back then because of our exploits on the track and on the football pitch. People respected us so much because of our talents and it is no surprise we went on to make names for ourselves later in life.

LOVE FOR TRACK AND FIELD

We started out as footballers and like most Nigerian youths back then,we wanted to make names for ourselves in the round leather game.But things changed for us at a point in time that we did not expect.We attended a school sports competition one day and Mr Tobias Igwe, a respected athletics coach saw us run. He was highly impressed with our performances and told us we had what it takes to make it to the top.He further advised us that if we listened to him and trained hard, we could get scholarships in an American school. That was how we became athletes.For us, we were doing the sport for fun until we discovered that we could further our education without actually paying for it.

RIVALRY WITH TWIN BROTHER

I wouldn’t call it a rivalry because we are twins and it was just fun for both of us striving to be the best in the sport. It was just fun competing with my twin brother on the tracks in our active days.Davidson was an ideal training partner for me. We are always together training and competing.

It was so easy for both of us because we didn’t have to look for partners to train with,other athletes didn’t enjoy this benefit. We always trained together and it brought out the best in us. So for me, I didn’t see it as a rivalry but rather a wonderful opportunity for us to sharpen our skills and improve ourselves.

SECRET BEHIND SUCCESS

Well, I would say I love competing. When I started as an athlete, I wanted to wear the green and white colours of my fatherland more than anything. It was the pride of my generation whenever we wore the national colours. Success also comes with a price. Most athletes in my generation had their education paid for and we also made money in Europe.

COMBINING SCHOOL AND EDUCATION

It was not easy but we were prepared to pay the sacrifice to get to the top. Actually the American academic system is fashioned out in a way to allow you still compete whilst attending school but it was not easy.However,the importance we attached to our education and athletics career saw us through.

FOND MEMORIES

I have so many fond memories in the colours of Nigeria but the one that I enjoyed most is my first Commomwealth Games in Auckland , New Zealand. You know, me and Davidson were so young then.
We just completed high school and nobody knew who we were and there was no focus on us. We were so eager to run.

So it was fun for us. There was no pressure on us because of our age and we exceeded peoples’ expectations. It was a wonderful opportunity for us to really announce ourselves as great athletes. It was a good starting point for us and people started taking notice of the Ezinwa brothers. Before then, there were other great athletes who had done well for the country and our coming on board was a further testament to Nigeria’s reservoir of talents.

The 1992 Olympics in Barcelona was another memorable outing for me. That was also fun too as we were still young and in college then . We had a lot of great athletes coming to the Olympics. Frankie Fredericks, Carl Lewis and a whole lot of other notable athletes who were at their peaks back then. I can’t just forget that experience because it was a convergence of the best athletes from different parts of the world. People competing in different sports,meeting people who had different cultural backgrounds, people who speak different languages, everybody coming together in a friendly atmospherC and sharing in the spirit of the Olympics.

For us, we were not the neophytes who attended the Commonwealth Games few years earlier.This time around we knew what it meant to compete at the very top and to the glory of God we won silver medal in the 4x100 men’s relay. That remains one of my best moments as an athlete.

LOW MOMENTS

In life, there are always ups and downs. When you are up there, you are happy and when you are down you try to psyche yourself up. I can't really pinpoint any aspect of my career as the one I don’t really like. Whenever I was down, I always tried to lift myself and get back to the top.

Then one knew that it was not easy to stay at the summit forever. There were so many people who always aspired to be the best and always strove to attain that height too.It was always difficult staying at the top. So for me, focus and determination were the watchwords when I was an athlete. I enjoyed all the moments I spent competing on the tracks and they were fun all through.

THE HOME FRONT

Marital life is fun and I am enjoying it.One thing is obvious, it is not as easy as most people think it is.You know, from a bachelor to being a married man, there is a lot of stuff you have to give up for the marriage to work. For example, there is no chance to stay out late in the night again because one’s wife and children are at home.

I must also say this, the fact that I was an athlete has also really helped me a lot. As an athlete you have to be disciplined if you want to really achieve the best. You have to shun things like smoking, womanizing , keeping late nights and some other negative stuff to be the best. That really helped me when I settled down.

Then, the aspect of really studying your partner and making sure you do everything that will make the marriage work. You have a woman coming from a background, that is different from yours and you have to compromise on certain things for the marriage to work.

It is also important to spend time with your kids in particular and at the same time provide for their needs. Before you know it, they are grown up as well. Despite all these, it’s been fun for me and my family.

LIFE IN USA

Life in the United States of America can be compared to that of Nigeria. It is all about making use of the opportunity you have. If you don’t put in the best in everything you do, you won’t be able to survive. The only difference is that, there are better opportunities here in USA than in Nigeria.

Back home, you never know what is going to happen tomorrow. There is a lot instability, insecurity and so many other problems that have made people uncomfortable. Other than that, there is not much difference. You have to work really hard to survive and cater for your family.

Then, there are some other basic things that we are enjoying here which are lacking in Nigeria .I'm talking about constant electricity, good health care facilities and quality road networks.

FUTURE PLANS

Presently, I am a Finance Manager.I can’t really say I'm out of athletics for now because I still have the desire to coach young athletes who are aspiring to be the best in the game.It’s just that I am not actively involved in any training programme at the moment.

Hopefully I will get involved with younger athletes very soon, maybe in high schools. I prefer coaching at this level because you get constant attention from the athletes. They listen to you and imbibe whatever you are telling them compared to their older colleagues who most times do not listen to instructions.

That is my desire for now. Moulding kids and young athletes to becoming great athletes in future.

EXPECTATIONS FROM LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS

Well, I am going to base my discussion on what I saw at the last World Athletics Championships.For the men,I am not expecting much because they didn't do too well at the world championsips. I heard that Innocent Egbunike is now handling the the athletes. The problem is the time frame, as we have less than six months to the olympics. I know a lot of people will be expecting something great from them but I don't think they have what it takes to win a medal.I just wish they can do better than they did at the last world athletics championships.

For the women, one can expect something from them because they performed a little bit better at the world championships.There is a possibility that they can win some medals.

http://completesportsnigeria.com/news/2 ... in-a-medal

[azuka]

Until the reminants of Amos Adamu's legacy are removed from our sports, we will not make headway. He was an octopus in our sports and all his wings need to be cut. Until then we will only be chasing shadows.

[Babafad]

After reading the first article, I felt like weeping for Nigeria. How have things come to this......no medals?

[mcal]

...bad organization led by chop i chop group of thieves.

[folem]

2010 Commonwealth Games didn't turn out as a repeat of Berlin 2009. We won 6 medals, 2 of them Gold in Athletics.

[Chingo Bling]

2010 Commonwealth Games didn't turn out as a repeat of Berlin 2009. We won 6 medals, 2 of them Gold in Athletics.

We tend to do well at Commonweatlth games and totally dominate African competitions, but when it comes to the world stage, nada!
The athletes were probably fooled by their exploits on the continent!

[Avayi]

THEY NEVER LISTENED!


EZINWA: ‘NIGERIA DO NOT HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO WIN A MEDAL!’

Com O! Many of those "great" Naija atheletes of the 80s and 90s were drugs cheats!!!!


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_do ... _athletics

[folem]

2010 Commonwealth Games didn't turn out as a repeat of Berlin 2009. We won 6 medals, 2 of them Gold in Athletics.

We tend to do well at Commonweatlth games and totally dominate African competitions, but when it comes to the world stage, nada!
The athletes were probably fooled by their exploits on the continent!

We only win about 2 or 3 Gold medals at Commonwealth Games Athletics, sometimes zero.

[realtrouble]

After reading the first article, I felt like weeping for Nigeria. How have things come to this......no medals?

It come to this, when people blame the entire country instead of understanding how an organised and civilized society flourish. The athlete have their role to play by demonstrating hard-work and commitment, but the governing sporting institutions managing Nigeria sports men and women, also have a larger role to play in managing and organizing our young talent and developing the institutions and infrastructures that will assist these committed athlete.

Nigeria government lack the basic understanding of organisation.

[folem]

After reading the first article, I felt like weeping for Nigeria. How have things come to this......no medals?

Did you read that there were no medals in 1980 & 1988?