ANOTHER BAD SIDE of many problems LOCAL athletes in Nigeria are battling! AFN shouldnt be blamed 100%,when we consider that our dear EX-ATHLETES are chief advisers to the powerful ones,maybe the national federation shouldnt be blamed at all. I felt moved by the gallant move of an emerging champ,in fact a national champ against all odds... He was once told he couldnt learn Forsbury flop too quickly and went through hell to secure a national sports festival medal! I met him juggling studying, training and working in the night just to make ends meet! He placed close 2nd at a state trial with few centimeters short of 2m,yet he was sidelined that another better jumper was in the states reserve. A friend called me that a new boy just did close to 2m with a crude technique, a champion material when nurtured. I told him to invite him over to my city,but the boy had to work, so it was very difficult for him to relocate just like that. Moreso,ididnt have a landing foam in my city! So I relocated instead eventually. And today,he has added 20cm to his pb,a new champion in high jump has emerged. To manage him on the states team,I persuaded a friend who was the consultant in charge to put him on his team as a decathlete since there was no spare space for a high jumper,which he agreed but only allowance was all he was entitled to. And there were many athletes that didnt even compete but collected more than a million naira for doing nothing! He couldnt make a valid throw in the javelin event of the decathlon event,and was stopped from continuing by AFN top officials,infact board members that the decathlon rules stated that! Another national sports festival rolled in,he was now victimized because of me,he almost killed himself trying to attend a final trial even when he was down with malaria fever. We rushed him to the clinic immediately after the trial. He was still not accepted despite his 2nd position placement behind the current national sports festival champ...it took Gods intervention. His leading decathlon performance was reduced to 3rd by cramps in the last event... The next day was the high jump proper event,he couldnt deliver... His dream of a medal was almost denied when a greedy coach who was in charge bought a rickety pole for his pole vault event,which was not even his size. And he told him to abandon the event if he couldnt use it! This came from an ex-athlete who was once based in Europe. Sometimes last year,the same coach told the boy to count himself out of his team if he wont feature in decathlon at the NSF level when he realised the boys potential after jumping 7.2m in long jump and a sub 11s in 100m. The boy is focusing on high jump and other jumps as back up for more medals. But after a convincing successive wins in high jump,with Forsbury flop technique,this interesting ex-international athlete-coach is now enticing the champ with not just the state contract,but permanent federal job. And another sports festival is around the corner,he has told the boy to forget the federal job and the state contract if the boy insists on his demand! And what was or is this emerging stars request? He needs his personal coach,who was sent away from the boys training ground by a notable AFN board member , because he(boy) refused to train with the schools official coach,to be contracted as his official coach towards the next NSF ... I am so proud of my boy for being obedient enough by quitting his job to focus on his studies and have enough resting period for recovery after training. I am more proud of him for standing his ground.. and he does not want a recurrence of what transpired at the last NSF. And in his word HOW CAN SOMEBODY BE WORKING FOR OTHERS TO REAP ALL THE TIME,it must stop. But in Nigeria,bad guys almost always win. But for a current national high jump champion,lets keep our fingers crossed to see how the story would end. I hope his state of origin, Imo can claim their son the champion soon enough...
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 07:14:16 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015