Nigerian Minister of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has blamed
Nigeria’s poor performances in sports to the inability to groom and
replace aging professional athletes with younger talent.
Dalung said this on Tuesday in Abuja while receiving Nigeria gymnasts
that participated at the 2017 Regional African Gymnastics Championship
in South Africa.
The 11 gymnasts comprise a boy and 10 girls, particularly a five-year old.
Team Nigeria won two gold medals and nine bronze at levels 4-9 of the championship.
Dalung thanked Coach Anthony Asuquo for his determination in grassroots sports development.
“I thank the coach for his determination in grassroots sports
development. I discover that we have depleted the profile of our
national athletes.“This has led us to recycle our professional athletes which has resulted to our poor podium performances.
“When I came on board, I came up with a policy of massive grassroots
sports development. I have not pretended over this, it will remain the
focus and policy in the ministry.“We must encourage young athletes; we must discover young athletes, develop them so that they can realise their potential.
“I think the gymnastic federation, with others, have keyed into this policy.
“We must practically demonstrate this, and in demonstrating this, we
must get younger people involved and much younger ages should be
attracted into sports.“They should be encouraged and supported so that they can develop,’’ he said.
Dalung, who was very impressed with the performance of the five-year
old gymnast, Lara Anot who won her first bronze medal, said more younger
gymnasts should be trained.“If we can get more five-year old gymnasts to win medals for the
country, in the next five years, Nigeria will have athletes that will
dominate the gymnastics space for the next 10 to 15 years before
retiring.“Therefore, I congratulate our great gymnasts for making us proud,’’ he said.
Dalung directed the acting permanent secretary of the ministry to
ensure that the financial assistance due to the team was released.
Daily Post