President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria AFN,Tonobok Okowa has expressed optimism that Nigeria will perform better at the next World Athletics Championship next year in Hungary.
He opined that the forthcoming reception for Team Nigeria who did the nation proud at the recently concluded World Athletics Championship in Oregan USA and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham is well deserved and should be commended.
He made the submissions while responding to questions on Arise tv including his thoughts on concerns in some quarters that male athletes have not been doing very well in recent times.
He opined that athletes and coaches alike all need support to up their games adding that achievements made so far is an indication that the future is bright and that a lot more can be achieved. The federation he said has been making efforts to get more corporate body support which has started to yield fruits.
“We have been trying to get the attention of the cooperate bodies but thank God some of them are beginning to support us. Our athletes did very well and I believe they will do better with more support” he enthused.
On how best to discover more athletes in the country the AFN boss said catching them young remains the best option citing Delta state example where he said continuous effort is being made to discover talents that are groomed for youth games and sent to high performance centre. “We need to catch them young and also follow them up that is the way to go” he added
Nigeria hit the grabbed the headlines for the right reasons at the recently concluded world athletics Championship in Oregon where Tobi Amusan among others shone like a million stars as well as in Birmingham where Team Nigeria ended up as best in Africa with 35 medals made up of 12 Gold 9Silver and 14 Bronze.
All things being equal Team Nigeria to the 2022 CWG will be hosted at the Aso Rock Villa September 15.
