2011 NSF: FCT targets medals with green horns

Speaking to Trustsports, the Director of sports in the FCT, Mallam Musa Alim said FCT would be attending the 2011 National Sports Festival in Rivers State with athletes who are unknown but have demonstrated enough ability to win medals for the FCT. He said the FCT does not believe in poaching ready -made athletes from […]

Speaking to Trustsports, the Director of sports in the FCT, Mallam Musa Alim said FCT would be attending the 2011 National Sports Festival in Rivers State with athletes who are unknown but have demonstrated enough ability to win medals for the FCT.

He said the FCT does not believe in poaching ready -made athletes from other states and the forth coming National Sports Festival in Port-Harcourt City will not be different as he maintained that budding athletes endowed with the necessary skills in their respective games would be fielded to represent the FCT.

He said FCT’s participation in the sports festival is not aimed at winning all the medals at stake by all means but participating well and improving on its performance in the last National Sports Festival in Kaduna.

Alim explained that FCT does not lay so much emphasis on winning the sports festival as he said the win at all cost syndrome is responsibility for cheating and re-cycling of athletes by other states.

He said: “We are going into the sports festival with basically fresh athletes. Those athletes we have discovered from our grassroots competitions are the ones we are going to field at the sports festival. From the competitions that we have been having, we have discovered athletes and these are the athletes that we would be fielding at the National Sports festival.

Alim however disclosed that before the 2011 National Sports festivals, the inexperienced athletes would be exposed to more training at the national and international scene.

His words: “We have a group of young gymnasts who won us medals at the last National Sports festival and are within the ages of 9 and 12. Within the next few weeks, especially after their exams, we would send them to South Africa for at least two weeks exposure. The essence is to let them see, understand and appreciate their sport the more and be more committed to it.

Alim who said he is aware of the danger in taking inexperienced athletes to the National Sports Festival but noted that he would rather be criticized than depend on ready-made athletes for cheap popularity.

“I will rather be criticized than succumb to cheap victory. The problem in this country is that people cannot take the bull by the horns. You just cannot be buying athletes because you want to win the sports festival. It takes at least three to four years to develop a champion athlete and that is what we do in the FCT. This is not to say I am not aware of the standard set in terms of performance during the last National Sports Festival in Kaduna”, he stated.