Okagbare Condemns Resort to Foreign Athletes
Says such policy killing devt of grassroots talents
Duro Ikhazuagbe Track and field star, Blessing Okagbare Ighoteguonor, yesterday condemned Nigeria’s resort to importing foreign athletes with faint connections to the country for competitions instead of developing the home-based talents.
Fresh from leading Nigeria to the gold medal of the 4x200m event of the IAAF World Relays in Bahamas at the weekend with others like Regina George, Dominique Duncan and Christy Udoh, Okagbare said yesterday on her Facebook wall that such policies were stunting the growth of track and field in the country.
“Honestly, I have been so calm about these people killing our grassroots section/ home-based athletes with their recruiting of athletes from other countries instead of building the great talents that we have,” observed the University of Texas in El Paso (UTEP) graduate.
The 2013 World Championship double medalist in 200m and long jump stressed further that those hoping for a change in Nigeria’s track & field should not just wait but also pray.
“What a show of shame the administration has become? They sit down, criticise the athletes back home that they are not improving or doing enough to be at the top but yet, they don’t do anything to support them,” Okagbare admonished further in her social media post yesterday.
She was infuriated by the decision of sports authorities in the country to even contemplate rating these ‘mercenaries’ far and above the country’s athletes.
“They rate their recruits above the great talent that the country have, paying money and rent to athletes who have not even shown up to our Nigeria trials just to look good,” revealed the Delta athlete whose career was largely given the flip by the help of the Emmanuel Uduaghan administration in Delta State.
The African sprint record holder at 10.79 in the 100m, insisted that enough was enough to these policies that are stunting the growth of the sport that made Nigeria a global power with the likes of the Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo, Chioma Ajunwa, Innocent Egbunike, Sunday Uti, Moses Ugbisien, Chidi Imoh, Olapade Adeniken, the Ezinwa brother, (Davidson and Osmond), Yusuf Ali and several other in the past.
“Enough is enough with the short cuts to success because, our nation and athletes are so better than this,” concludes Okagbare.
Nigeria’s track & field just like all the other 27 Olympic sports have been groaning under the weight of poor funding for decades. The barely N6billion annual budget of the National Sports Commission (NSC) is hardly enough to power developments.
Most of the federations can hardly attend competitions that are sometimes qualifiers for the Olympic yet Nigerian athletes are expected to go and perform miracle to win gold medals.
The level of the rot in the sector was clearly exemplified by Team Nigeria’s dismal outing at the London 2012 Olympiad with no medal to show for the outing.
All promises to reverse the trend ended up mere promises with several of the country’s athletes eloping to other countries with better incentives. The few gains made are through the personal efforts of the individual athletes. None of the mercenary athletes have won anything substantial.
Even Okagbare was under pressure to switch allegiance until patriotism held her back. Apart from Delta State, her rise to the summit of her event is partly due to the sponsorship she gets from American sportswear giants, Nike and also having the benefit to train under one of the world’s best coaches, John Smith.