By Ben Efe
Nigerian athletes for the African Championships starting July 28 in Nairobi, Kenya are schedule to leave  next week Monday.

Athletics Federation of Nigeria officials disclosed that the team is making an early departure to enable the athletes acclimatize in high altitude Nairobi. This move was to prevent a re-occurrence of the poor showing at the Ethiopia 2008 Championships. Then most of the athletes blamed their misfortune on high altitude Addis Ababa.

“All our athletes are moving out next week this include the team for the World junior in Canada. We want to acclimatize before the Championships begin,”said Sunday Bada, technical director of the AFN.

The AFN is sending a sizeable team to the championships. Only handful of athletes met the standards that was set for the Championships by the AFN.

Top athletes like Ogho-Oghene Egwero, Stanley Gbagbeke, Samson Idiata found themselves outside the loop, but according to Bada, they still have till July 28 to make the standards.