Chioma Ajunwa Decried The Deplorable State Of Athletics In Nigeria

8 years ago

Chioma Ajunwa Decried The Deplorable State Of Athletics In Nigeria

Olympics gold medalist Chioma Ajunwa (MON) has lamented the deplorable state of grassroots athletics in Nigeria.
DPO Chioma Ajunwa
The Atlanta ’96 medalist criticised the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN), coaches and retired athletes for not doing enough to unearth young athletes.

She accuse the stakeholders and administrators of ignoring inter-house sports competitions in schools which used to be a spring board for athletes in her generation.

The retired athlete turned policewoman was speaking at the unveiling ceremony of the maiden edition of the Chioma Ajunwa Secondary Schools Athletics Championship due to commence Nov 19-22 at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

She told saharareporterssports:“My greatest fear is the future of the Nigeria Athletics.

You may ask why I’m worried. It’s because we-the stakeholders-AFN, Coaches and retired athletes are not doing much yearly by combing the nooks and crannies of the various parts of the country to search and groom talents.

This is far from what was prevalent during our times when we came across AFN coaches at inter-house sports competitions’, they were the ones who encourage us to pick Athletics over other sports.

Let me state that I was a good football player but my inquisitiveness to see what athletics offers made me switch.

The rest is the successful career later on.”
Speaking on the need to establish her athletics school, Ajunwa said:“My foundation decided to float and organize this championship having seen the disparity in the level of talent hunt especially football taking the first place. You see we believe that everybody can run and thus athletic should be the first sport of choice amongst our youngsters.

Football goes beyond running around, and over 1000 youngsters will be in attendance for the three-Day event where the best of them will be given sporting scholarship.

Full accommodation and feeding will be provided throughout the championship.”
Ajunwa is Nigeria’s first individual gold medalist at the Olympics. She specialized in the long-jump event and was a police officer before venturing into Olympics. She is still Nigeria’s only individual gold medalist at the Olympics.
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