By Ben Efe

Nigeria’s 2014 athletics season begins on February 14, when the All Comers meet holds in Sagamu, Ogun State and athletics coaches and officials are expecting the athletes who have been in the Commonwealth Games camp in Abuja to put up a show and prove that the training they recieved was not a wasted exercise.

The Abuja camp went into recess on Thursday, with the athletes given permission to attend to personal matters, before heading for the second phase camping that will commence, after the All Comers meet.

AFN camp commandant, Jide Josiah stated that the camping has been of immense benefit to those who participated in it and according to him, the first competition of the season will be like a measuring stick  for  the campers and indeed others who might have worked even harder with their personal coaches.

“We have had a series of trials in camp and I must tell you there is a remarkable improvement. When the season’s competitions begin we expected that there will be good performances from the athletes.

“It will be interesting to see what the athletes can do. Most especially the throwers, who even surprised us the more in the camp. There was one particular chap, who threw 60m in the javelin it was his first time and was using his raw energy,” said the former national sprinter.

Also commenting coach, Adu Uruemu stressed that with what he heard of the camping activities, he was expecting to see heartwarming performances from the athletes.

“Though it is unwise to count your chicks before they hatched, I hope to see improvements. The All Comers will reveal to us what to expect for the season.” said Adu.

He added that the AFN did well by camping the athletes, however, he noted that coaches who had more than one athlete in the camp where left behind.

“It would have been good if coaches who have athletes in  camp were carried along. For instance you and your athletes were running a programme and they are called to camp and something else is introduced to them. I hope that the AFN will look into this in the future.”