By Ben Efe

Athletics Federation of Nigeria doping and medical committee director, Ken Anugueje has stated that there was no steady replacement for aging Nigerian athletes hence the seeming decay facing the sport particularly the male division.

Nigeria a country of about 170m million people can only boast of a handful of athletes some of whom barely hit the A standards of the IAAF. But according to Dr. Anugueje there is an urgent need to fund athletics development in the Nigeria.

“We need to train a new crop athletes. Most of our athletes particularly the men have almost reached the twilight of their careers and we don’t have younger ones that will retire them permanently.

“For instance most of the boys who ran the relay at the 2013 world championships cannot event make the team to the 2015 worlds and the All Africa games.

“What we have right now are bits and pieces of talents. Until we have our trials then we will see who we have,”he said. He argued that the government and private concerns must come to the aid of athletics, if the country were to achieve a revival of the old flame.

“It is not that we don’t have talents There are; but we are not grooming them due to lack of funds.

“The attention is only on football here in Nigeria. But it is not so in most sporting countries, take for instance Brazil, a soccer nation, they have not neglected other sports, they have fanatic athletes, they are good in volleyball. Why can’t we also give priority to athletics and other sports?

Meanwhile, newly confirmed National Sports Commission Director-General, Alhasan Yakmut, has been called upon to use his wealth of experience to ensure that Olympic sports such as athletics receive adequate attention. Throws coach, Gabriel Opuana stated that Yakmut as a former volleyball player, should know better how best to evolve development programmes that will help the sport.