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Sports News of Tuesday, 24 August 2021

Source: www.thisdaylive.com

Buhari hails Nigeria's U-20 athletes' feat in Kenya

Nigerian athletes Nigerian athletes

President Muhammadu Buhari has congratulated Nigeria’s athletes to the just concluded World Athletics U20 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya for their outstanding performances.

Nigeria won four gold and three bronze medals to finish third on the medal table. Over 110 countries participated in the biennial junior track & field competition.

The President, in a release issued yesterday by his Media Adviser, Femi Adesina, commended the team and their handlers for showcasing to the world that Nigeria is blessed with some of the best talents in the sport who by dint of hard work and perseverance can dazzle anytime and anywhere.

President Buhari believed that with four gold and three bronze medals to finish third on the final medals table, Nigeria’s sports ambassadors in Nairobi and the entire contingent have every reason to celebrate their well-deserved laurels while putting the track and field world on notice of their intentions to surpass their achievements in the nearest future.

He thanked the victorious athletes for flying the country’s flag high at the competition, breaking new records from personal bests and national records all the way to championship records.

The President joined all Nigerians in celebrating the patriots for reinforcing the can-do and resilient spirit of the Nigerian at the Championships.

Similarly, President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Tonobok Okowa, while hailing the medalists, insisted that the future is very bright for track and field in Nigeria following the unprecedented feats achieved by the country’s young athletes in Nairobi, Kenya.

“The athletes and their coaches have done us very proud. They have achieved our best-ever performance in the history of the Championships,” observed Okowa.

The AFN President believes the unprecedented feats signify that track and field in Nigeria is on the rise again after some 13 years of more misses than hits.

"This is a new beginning for athletics in Nigeria. We are confident these new set of athletes will be there in Paris, France in three years time to help us also achieve our best performance at the Olympics,” he said.

Okowa insists Nigeria’s inability to win a single medal in track & and field at both the London (2012) and Rio de Janeiro (2016) Olympics was because we neglected our youths.

“Our chances of winning medals at the Olympics reduced because we failed to develop the youths who would have grown to make podium appearances like their predecessors did especially in the 1990s and early 2000s,” he added and revealed all the individual medals Nigeria won at the Olympics came from athletes who started at the U20 level.

“From Falilat Ogunkoya, Mary Onyali to Chioma Ajunwa, Blessing Okagbare, Glory Alozie and Ese Brume, they all rose to become Olympic medallists after making their marks at the World U20 Championships. The challenge before us at the AFN is to turn some of the athletes here to potential Olympic medallists by the time we get to Paris, France in 2024,” he further observed.

Okowa believes with the encouraging support the AFN has been getting from the Youth and Sports Development Minister, Sunday Dare, the federation was confident of not only nurturing the athletes that have shown the potential to be world-class stars at the Nairobi 2021 event but also discover more.