Reactions have continued to rage after Minister of Youth and Sports Development claimed that Nigeria performed better at the just concluded Commonwealth Games than previous editions. PAUL OKAH sampled opinion of Sports Lovers on the Abuja streets.
Nigeria’s performance at Gold coast, a wakeup call
Raphael Okon,a sports analyst
In all honesty, we did not do very well at Gold Coast. I remember that Team Nigeria won a total of 36 medals in 2014, so celebrating 24 medals from 10 games seems to me to an exercise in retrospect. This is just to tell us that something is not right and that we should wake up. The Nigeria Sports Federation and the concerned bodies should wake up to their responsibilities and prepare against the 2020 Olympics. We do not want a repeat of this Gold Coast misery in Tokyo.
Let there be encouragement for Athletes
Ejike Nwachukwu, a taxi driver.
The problem with athletics in Nigeria is that they lack sponsorship unlike in football. Whenever there is a football competition, government will pull all the stops to make sure that the players will succeed. However, I believe that athletes should also be encouraged in order to be able to continue performing very well. We tried our best in Australia, but I believe we would have done better if we had the right sponsorship from government and other agencies. Even though we did not perform very well, compared to our past records, the athletes still managed to make us proud by winning some medals.
Preparation, big blow to team Nigeria
Rita Balogun, a student.
I am not surprised that we did not win much medals at the Commonwealth Games in Australia. Many of the athletes at the event weere home-based and were participating for the first time. So they did not perform as expected. However, for first timers, they tried their best. We would have won more than the 24 medals we came back with, had it been that we were better prepared. As rookies, the athletes were not given any hope of excelling, but they surpassed expectations and held their own against better trained opponents.
Owed allowances not withstanding
Pius Bello, an artisan.
For the first time in history, Nigerian participants were not discouraged by being owed allowances, that’s if what we hear in the media is true, so I am proud to be a Nigerian. Our athletes went to the Commonwealth Games in Australia and brought back a total of 24 medals and should be encouraged. The likes of Blessing Ogurududu and Patience Okon should be celebrated in other to continue winning medals for Nigeria at international competitions.
Exposure, key to better times ahead
Jennifer Beatrice, a teacher.
Our performance at the Commonwealth Games was not all that encouraging, but it could have been worse. The truth is that we were not prepared for the competition. As a result, we just scrambled some players to represent us at the competition and they are even reports that some of the notable athletes that Nigeria could boast of refused to participate at some point, but I believe that the future of Nigerian athletes is bright. If novices can compete against international stars and hold their own, I believe they will do better with exposure at other events.
