Chris Maduewesi
Member
President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee(NOC) Sani Ndanusa is confident that the country is on the right track to do well at future Olympic Games.
Nigeria had one its worst outings at the Olympics, failing to win a single medal at the London 2012 Games.
With the NOC partnering with the Para-Military bodies to help churn out good athletes that can compete for medals, Ndanusa is hopeful that the collaboration will yield dividends.
Last weekend in Kaduna, a One Service One Medal (OSOM) Games climaxed, and some athletes have already been identified to flag the country's flag at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic games respectively.
Ndanusa said that the athletes would be nurtured and given the exposure that will help them excel.
“We are satisfied with the performances of the athletes because it is the first OSOM Games to pick the talents capable of achieving a medal at the Olympic Games. We have high performance centre where they would be trained for international competitions because they need to be monitored and given the necessary competition.”
Ndanusa revealed that they had to go back to the para-military, after discovering that most of the past medals Nigeria won were achieved by servicemen.
“This led to a research and it was discovered that a considerable percentage of medalists produced by Nigeria at past international events; Olympics and commonwealth Games had come from the Military and Para-Military bodies.
“As a result, the need to exploit the situation by collaborating with the agencies to strengthen the partnership for the success of sports development.
Nigeria had one its worst outings at the Olympics, failing to win a single medal at the London 2012 Games.
With the NOC partnering with the Para-Military bodies to help churn out good athletes that can compete for medals, Ndanusa is hopeful that the collaboration will yield dividends.
Last weekend in Kaduna, a One Service One Medal (OSOM) Games climaxed, and some athletes have already been identified to flag the country's flag at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic games respectively.
Ndanusa said that the athletes would be nurtured and given the exposure that will help them excel.
“We are satisfied with the performances of the athletes because it is the first OSOM Games to pick the talents capable of achieving a medal at the Olympic Games. We have high performance centre where they would be trained for international competitions because they need to be monitored and given the necessary competition.”
Ndanusa revealed that they had to go back to the para-military, after discovering that most of the past medals Nigeria won were achieved by servicemen.
“This led to a research and it was discovered that a considerable percentage of medalists produced by Nigeria at past international events; Olympics and commonwealth Games had come from the Military and Para-Military bodies.
“As a result, the need to exploit the situation by collaborating with the agencies to strengthen the partnership for the success of sports development.