Daily Independent Online.
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Thursday, June 17, 2004.
Poor turn-out mars Enugu Zonal classic
Pius Anakali
Senior
Correspondent,
Lagos
The just concluded
Enugu Zonal Classic has been described as the least attended in recent times.
The event billed to feature athletes from the South East Zone was marred by
poor turn-out . Most of the athletes who were billed to feature in the event
pulled out at the last minute because they thought nothing would come out of
it, according to one of the athletes.
“A lot of
people trooped out to participate at the last edition held in Calabar because many of them thought they would
go home with some financial reward. But when it turned out that no such
arrangement was made, many were not happy. That may have accounted for the poor turn out in Enugu”,
he said.
However, because of
pressure from athletes for some compensation, officials at the Enugu Classic
made accommodation arrangement for the first four athletes in every event.
Besides the poor
turn out of athletes, Daily Independent also gathered that wind was the
other problem the athlete had to contend with.
“Wind was one
thing we all struggled against ”, he said, adding “there is no way
you can run a good race when the wind is against you”.
Speaking on the
overall performance of athletes who took part in the event, Athletes Coach,
Sade Ola said it would be wrong to rate any athlete based on the performance at
the meet saying the dearth of Athlete Classics has made such rating unworkable.
“How do you rate an athlete based on the performance
at the meet when there are no regular meets”, he asked.
