Former National Badminton Coach, Mohammed Bako, has decried the poor performance of the country’s contingent at the recent International Moroccan Championships/11th All Africa Senior Badminton Championships in Morocco.

The 10-man contingent comprising five males and five females won 1 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze at the competitions.

Bako, who is the head coach of the FCT Badminton Association, told newsmen in Lagos that the solution to the country’s dismal performance in international competitions was early preparation.

The coach advised for early preparation in order for the country to excel at the forthcoming All Africa Games scheduled for Maputo, Mozambique and other International competitions.

“We should learn to do things early and stop using the fire brigade approach; if we plan early, it would improve our chances at the All Africa Games,” Bako said.

The All Africa Games is scheduled for September in Mozambique.

He also flayed the practice of sending only one coach to accompany several athletes to a competition.

“There should be more than one coach during competitions because they need to read and analyse players in order to instruct them, especially if we have more than a player on the court,” he said.

Bako also said that for Nigeria to regain its glory, the badminton federation must work hard to prepare the athletes to beat the current champion, South Africa.

“For South Africa to have won almost all the gold medals at the competition, our ranking has dropped in Africa and this is cause for alarm.”

“We need to work hard and also re-introduce the game to the schools to develop and popularise it,” he said.