Era of late preparation for Olympics gone, says Dalung
The hope for Nigeria to perform
creditably at the Olympics and other quadrennial Games has been
rekindled with the Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, saying
that the era of late preparation is over.
Dalung, said this when he met with the sports journalists at the weekend in Lagos
“I am determined to ensure that we start early preparation for Tokyo 2020 by now’’, he said.
In pursuance of this objective, he said
programmes for athletes’ discovery and nurturing which had been
abandoned would be revamped to enable the selection process and
preparations for the Tokyo Games.
“Basically, what we did with the
National Youth Games knowing that it has been abandoned for a long time
and knowing it gives us the opportunity to identify talents was to
revamp it.
“What we did this year was to insist and
think outside the box by generating funds for sponsorship for the
National Youth Games and the potential that were identified was indeed
amazing.
“Also, I have come up with accuracy that
by the second quarter of next year, that every federation that is
interested in participating in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics must give a clear
profile of athletes it identified.
“This is for training to commence for
Olympics 2020 by the second quarter of next year so that we will
identify those athletes we are going to use for qualifications and
subsequent training in anticipation of the Olympics.
“We can no longer go for the Olympics
with only one year or six months preparation. It must be complete six
years or three at minimum,’’ he said.
The minister said that if a federation
was not prepared, it could not wake up mid way and begin to say that
they had gotten athletes. His ministry won’t accept that, he added.
“Anybody willing to participate must be
identified by second quarter of 2017, and a well defined programme put
in place to avoid low performances during the outing.
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