Only clean athletes will represent Nigeria at London Olympics- Yakmut

London 2012 is less than two months away. How prepared is Team Nigeria for the big show? So far we have been able to run through the qualification exercise decently. Team Nigeria has picked tickets to compete in 8 sports which is no longer news. We have finished with the on-shore training and just Tuesday […]

London 2012 is less than two months away. How prepared is Team Nigeria for the big show?

So far we have been able to run through the qualification exercise decently. Team Nigeria has picked tickets to compete in 8 sports which is no longer news. We have finished with the on-shore training and just Tuesday last week, the three sports namely, weightlifting, wrestling and table tennis left for Germany. Our boxers are presently in Bradford in the UK. Taekwondo has since April been in South Korea. Athletics have been in camp in Atlanta and now they are in the third phase of camping in Port- Harcourt and have participated in the grand-prix that took place two days ago in Warri. They also have the national trials on the June 19 to June 21 there in Calabar. Thereafter, they would proceed to Port-Novo in Benin Republic for the Africa Senior Athletics Championship from June 26 to July 1. From there they would move out for over-seas pre-games training camp on July 5. Meanwhile, other contingents will also come to Surrel on the 4th and there we would pool ourselves and do a very critical analysis to ensure that we have a qualitative outing at the games.  Except for boxers who are extending their movement until July 22 to maximize the number of days left for the Olympics, Team Nigeria is expected to move into the games village on July 18.

What has the advisory and coordinating committee done to ensure that the respective sports federations are in tune with preparations for the Games?

All the 8 sports federations that would be taking part in the Olympics and Para-Olympics have been given copies of their competition schedule to enable them know when and where they would be competing. So this committee has virtually taken a critical study of training schedules to ensure that all the details of the competitions are at the tips of the fingers of the federations.

Apart from the training camps you mentioned, what has the National Sports Commission done to motivate the athletes to give their best performance at the Games?

We just concluded the payment of all camping allowances ahead of time into the various accounts of the beneficiaries. We have paid the camping allowances of the officials and their athletes. In addition, we have kept their competition allowances in abeyance until when the camps are closed. The current leadership of the sports commission, that is talking about the Minister of sports and the Director-General of the National Sports Commission, have looked into the past experiences and discovered that there were some minor things that the athletes wanted on time that could ginger their performances but were made big issues. The aim this time is to cut out such distractions and make them non-issues. This was included in the strategic plan of our preparations and it was adequately implemented.

Going by the level of preparation, what should Nigerians expect from Team Nigeria at the 2012 London Olympics?

Well, we have prepared the athletes to give us their best. We are making sure that only the best represent Nigeria. That has been the watch word. If you look at the technical line up, everything is based on merit.

So you mean Team Nigeria is not going on another round of jamboree?

No! no!!, we have actually never been to any jamboree. What we had done was that we normally don’t think that qualification for participation should be based on grade A performance. What we have decided to do is that even if an athlete does not win a medal, he or she should be in the first 16 in the world. There are 205 countries that are participating in the Olympics. We have ensured that any athlete who is not in the first 16 in the world is not part of the team. However, those who do not place in the first 16 are there because we are trying to prepare athletes to transit into coaching. Like in Table tennis we have some couple of aged players there who have picked the ticket on merit but we are using them for take-off ground for qualitative high level coaching preparations.

What has your committee done to ensure that Team Nigeria is not hit by any doping scandal again?

Doping is one area that we have taken very seriously in our preparations. For the past four months we have been working closely with Nigeria Doping Agency. As I am talking to you, the third round of doping is going on and the last round would take place in the last camp overseas. We would make sure that only clean athletes get there. I want to tell you that if by any reason a Nigerian athlete is found to have tested positive to dope, to any banned substance, that athlete should be held responsible for that because on our part we have made sure that anything humanly possible is done so that the issue of drug does not come to Nigerian camp. There is nothing as embarrassing as an athlete using banned drugs in an attempt to boost his or her performance. We are supposed to play clean and win clean.