Sports

Okagbare: AFN must stop recruitment of American athletes

Published

8 years ago

October 9, 2016

Okagbare: AFN must stop recruitment of American athletes

African and Nigeria queen of the tracks, Blessing Okagbare, has urged the Athletic Federation of Nigeria to on stop on the recruitment of incompetent American athletes to on represent Nigeria.

The reigning Commonwealth Games fastest woman speaking during a live television programme said the move is detrimental to athletes development in the country and a complete waste of funds.

“It is sad that the Athletic Federation of Nigeria kept recruiting American athletes who are not good enough to win for America and neither can they beat me in my events. It is total waste of resources.

“Athletes that should be recruited must be the ones who can win international laurels for Nigeria. The AFN should pay more attention to grooming Nigerian young talents instead of wasting hard earned resources on unproductive American athletes.”

On her failure to win meadals at was Rio Olympics, Okagbare said she was still trying to adjust to the pattern of the new coach after parting with her former coach.

“The change actually slowed me down as I was used to the regime of my former American coach whose expertise made me win lots of races and jumps.

“With my average pace, some people rumoured that I was pregnant at Rio, but that was never the case. I was simply adjusting to the training regime of my new coach. The human body is not a machine.”

The Sapele born athlete attributed lack of cohesion for the failure of women’s 4x100m relays team.

“We failed to win in the relays, because our coach came late for the race and there was no one to coordinate us. The selection of athletes for the different legs of the race was made by the athletes as the coach was nowhere to be found.”

The Beijing 2008 Olympic medalist, also rued her inability to compete in the long jump event at the Rio Olympics.

“I had pains in my knee, so I had to drop the desire to do long jump which my coach believes I would win a medal for my country, ” she added.

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