By Victor Omoregie

Yesterday Victor Omoregie, a former national athlete started this piece on what the AFN did not do right for the London 2012 Olympics. Today we bring you the concluding part of the piece with emphasis on what the AFN can do to produce athletes who can be among medal winners at the Rio 2016 Games. Enjoy it.

If the AFN is to make any impact at the next Olympics in Rio, Brazil, now is the time to start preparing. The success of popular Caribbean countries like Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Grenada, Barbados, Bahamas, Cayman Island, Cuba, Dominica, Virgin Island, St. Kitts & Nevis etc, is something that should be looked into. These countries concentrate on their youths under the age-bracket of 12 – 17 years categories.

Outside this group are the under-seven and under-10 groups that are constantly groomed and monitored to join the 12-17 years category. I laughed when I heard that the AFN was still hoping to have Okagbare for the next Olympics. I would not be surprised if Obinna Metu is invited and goes on to represent the country. If it happens, that would be a crying shame.

I would like to use a few examples of youths that became world champions at the just concluded London Olympics as pointers to the importance of banking on the youths of a nation. Take for example Kirani James from Grenada. He began running when he was just 12 years old. He won the 400m men race with a time of 43.94 seconds at the London Olympics at the age of 20 years. Known as the ‘Jaguar’, he is presently a student of Business Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, USA. He had won the 400m earlier at the 2011 World Championship before his 19th birthday. It was his first major international gold medal. This made him the youngest sprinter to win a senior individual global title. He won a silver medal in the 400m with a time of 47.70 seconds at the age of 15 years, making him the fastest ever by anyone of that age.

Another youth worthy of mention that hugged the limelight at the London Olympics is Walcott Keshorn from Trinidad & Tobago. He defied a field of top javelin throwers from the Eastern Europe to clinch the gold medal. He was just 19 years. Rudisha Amos Kitun was another youth who won the 800m for men.

Blessing Okagbare

Modern Olympics has become a competition for the youths of the world with a sprinkling of experienced older athletes. This fact was more than confirmed with the Jamaican Youth Team sweeping the 200m for men – Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Weir Warren, all of them in their twenties and then going for a record breaking 4 x 100m relay.

The question now, is how will the AFN make Nigeria join the committee of champion nations?  After settling for the categories of athletes to work as suggested, the next step is to identify our areas of strength. Nigeria’s strength lies in the SHORT SPRINTS and JUMPS. By short sprints I mean the 100, 200 and 400 meters, while the jumps refer to the Long, Triple and High jumps.

Traditionally, these are the events that had brought us glory in the past and also because our body physique is suitable for such events. We can also get formidable relay quartets (4 x 100 and 4 x 400). In addition, the country could look-in to such events as Shot-Put, Discus and Javelin, just to have a broader view with respect to the events.

Next are the competitions that would throw-up the athletes that would emerge for further training and grooming. The competitions could be organised in the six geopolitical zones of the country, from which potential athletes who qualify would then meet at the National Open Championship, for the different specialised events. These competitions should be event-specific. For example, you can have a Jumps Classics, for either men or women. What this means is that only the jumps would be the events to be competed for all through the duration of the competition. The same thing should be done for the short sprints and the other field events. However the critical and most important aspects of these competitions should be the strict adherence to laid out standards, according to age groups. Thank God, Science can now predict correctly the limit of physical endurance for any age group. Thus for any athlete to be considered part of a further training programme, he/she must meet the standard set in the event.

Another ingredient in the build-up to producing champion athletes is the quality of coaches. These coaches should be grounded in the rules and techniques of the area of speciality. It would be best to teach the technique and rules of the sports to younger athletes at a tender age. These coaches can be got from those that scout and bring athletes who excel at the competition. A coach in this category is Tobias Igwe aka ‘Toblow’. He is considered Nigeria’s foremost grass-root coach. He is credited with the fact for the discovery of the likes of Mary Onyaki, Innocent Egbunike, the Osmond brothers and many others.

The National Sports Festival that has now lost its glamour and relevance can be revamped using this “standard regime”. The National Sports Festival has become tools in the hands of some unscrupulous Sports Officials to scam State Governors. They go to great lengths to cheat in order to be tops at the medals table. The medals tables have turned out to be controversial, with hosting States wanting to win by all means. At the end of the day, it is our sports development that has continued to suffer. Since the era of Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya and Innocent Egbunike, how many athletes discovered from the festival have gone to be world champions? The festival has become a political tool, with the aim of just shoring up popularity for the ‘winning’ States and their Governors.

For events that have Time, Distance and Height as their modalities of winning, standards should be set. For example, taking the Long Jump, if the standard for men is set for say 7.30 meters, it would then mean that for you to win a medal in this event you must jump the same distance or above the standard set. Thus you might have a situation where although athletes competed in the event nobody won a medal because none of the athletes met the standards. This would curb the practise by some States who go about poaching for athletes from other States.

What do you do when you are not sure that the athletes you are poaching can meet the standards set by the festival committee? The only obstacle however to this initiative would be the Nigerian penchant for lowering standards. However, if we want to join in the league of champion nations, we have to walk the long, hard and honest route. The National Sports Commission should ensure that the standards meet international specifications.

Now is the time for the AFN to call a congress of stakeholders in the sports to brainstorm. The end result of the said congress is to produce a blue-print for the AFN that would chart the route back to greatness in the sport. Aside from the youth category recommended, youths from the Universities, Polytechnics, Colleges of Education, Monotechnics, Senior Secondary Schools, Armed Forces and in fact all Nigerian Youths, should be part of the new renaissance to reclaim the nation’s lost glory in athletics.

Regarding sponsorship, this would come naturally, when it is noticed that monies put forward are used for sports development proper.

The reason behind the pull-out of Mobil Producing Company in sponsoring of AFN’s Olympic Trials Competition still remains a mystery. The supposedly impropriety over the spending of monies put up by sponsors had scared a lot of intending sponsors. The world over, sponsors want to be identified with the activities of the youths of any nation, sporting activities being one of the most favoured. Today, Usain Bolt of Jamaica is among the top ranked sports personalities of the world that have endorsement contracts from numerous multinational companies. Aside from the individual benefit accruing to the athlete, the athlete’s country of origin gets some of the lime-light showered on the athletes. Today Jamaica has become a household name, all because of the exploits of Usain Bolt in athletics.

In terms of sponsorship, events like the marathon (Obudu or any other one for that matter) are just a waste of time and an avenue for the sponsor to further launder its image instead of improving on the sports.

Nigeria should leave the marathon and long distance races to the East Africans, as they have not been seen in the short sprints. It would be a thing of history to see an East African competing in the 100 or 200 meters. They know where their strengths lie.

There is no time left, as other serious countries had already begun preparing for the RIO OLYMPICS in Brazil while they were at the London Olympics. It shows seriousness on their part. Nigeria has to work hard. We can achieve it if only the AFN put its acts together. AFN should pick target competitions that Nigeria should participate in and work towards it.

If one is wont to ask, where and what is  Innocent Egbunike doing right now?. The Olympics is the ultimate competition. Nothing is impossible, if you put your heart and mind to it. Enough of the rhetoric.