BNW

B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News

Last Updated: Monday, November 8th, 2004 HOME | Previous Page Ojokolo regrets Athens’ outing, slams camping   By Uzor Odigbo Correspondent, Lagos   Nigeria’s female sprinter Endurance Ojokolo has expressed regrets in the nation’s performance at the last Olympics held in Athens. She said she preferred early preparations to what she called “off the shelve hang over” kind of preparations. Ojokolo, who arrived the country last week, said Nigeria should be a big country by all standards, adding that the Athens’ outing was a shameful and unbelievable one. “Initially, I thought that if athletics had a poor outing other sports would bale the country out. To my surprise, everything crashed. Then, I asked myself, what went wrong. I soon discovered that administrators did not carry out preparation plans of all the Olympic sports they took to Athens.” She affirmed that part of Nigeria’s problem at the Games was the camping arrangement for each sport. Elite athletes, she said, do not have any business with camping, they should have been left to compete freely with others in the circuit. She argued that by putting them in closed camp situation, the level of competitiveness reduced to a level where their running forms drastically dropped. The three-time Mobil athletics champion said the country’s athletes would continue to lag behind if their preparations were not adequately funded by government, pointing out that for an athlete to hit Olympic form, such should be funded for four years from the tune-up to competition stages. Ojokolo, who crashed out in the third round of the 100m event at the Athens Games, warned that Nigeria should introduce professionalism in sports to enable the real experts administer it. “I was unable to go the distance at the Games not because I did not have what it could take, but for poor preparation and competition drought. I spent four months in the Nigerian camp while my contemporaries were competing well abroad. This affected me in particular and Nigerian athletes in general.”   Copyright� 2004. All Rights Reserved. Independent Newspapers Limited Block5, Plot 7D, Wempco Road, Ogba, P.M.B. 21777, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. www.independentng.com e-mail: [email protected] Designed By Powered By DNet.

	BNW News
Voice of Biafra | Biafra World | Biafra Online | Biafra Web | MASSOB | Biafra Forum | BLM | Biafra Consortium
	© 2001 BNW BiafraNigeriaWorld  Privacy Policy ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powered by ACENetwork ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Axiom PSI Yam Festival Series, Iri Ji Nd'Igbo the Kola-Nut Series,Nigeria Masterweb