Tokyo Olympics: Minister confirms Team Nigeria silent preparations

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare says Team Nigeria to the Tokyo Olympics has been “silently” preparing for the Games.

Dare said on the margins of   the two-day meet organised by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) that not all preparatory processes were being publicised.

He said: “Preparations are on-going at various levels, but some of these will not make it to the pages of the newspapers and the media and it’s deliberate too.

“We have several plans running almost concurrently too, for our foreign-based athletes and home-based athletes. But not all of these will be in the news…And just this last week, eight other Olympic-bound athletes were adopted too and you know what that means. That’s a plus. We had five or six adopted before Covid-19 last year. It became a bit difficult after Covid-19, because it took so long because people lost a lot of money and revenue.

”But just last week we had about eight adopted, bringing the total to about 15. We hope that we can adopt about 40 of them to make a difference.”

Impressive meeting
Dare noted that the two-day meet was impressive as momentum was being gained ahead of the Olympics. The minister added that he was happy that young athletes were setting personal best records with excitement and a higher spirit of competitiveness.

The Minister stressed that it would be his greatest moment for the 2020 National Sports Festival (NSF) holds, saying it would be in the interest of the country’s sports development and would be a great factor for the Olympics in July.

NP/Mercy Chukwudiebere