All the Nigerian athletes who competed at the African Junior Championships in Mauritius will be the first set of athletes that will benefit from the proposed High Performance Centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

According to Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, technical director, Omatseye Nesiama, all the athletes with their performances at the African junior meet have deservingly qualified to be admitted into the centre, and they will be given standard coaching and at the same time continue with their studies at the University of Port Harcourt.

“All the athletes who were in Mauritius performed creditably well. And they will be admitted into the High Performance Centre.

“We are going to get them quality personnel that will put them through their paces. With that we can be sure that in the near future, some of these juniors will be world champions,” Navy Commodore Nesiama.

However, there is no time-line yet for the centre and this is worrying former sprinter Uchenna Emedolu who was one of the coaches that were in Mauritius with the junior team.

“We have an incredible selection of junior athletes. We must not allow them to go just like that. We must not wait till the high performance centre is ready before we start training them.

“It will be nice if we give these athletes grants and allow them to train with their coaches and when high performance centre is ready they can move in for advance training.”