Lack Of Infrastructure Impeding Sports Dev – Igwe

The Head Coach, Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Tobias Igwe, says the absence of infrastructure at the grassroots has made it impossible for Nigeria to produce world class athletes.

Igwe told newsmen in Lagos that the National Sports Commission (NSC) needed to upgrade facilities at the Oghara camp for the enhanced training of athletes.

The coach, who is also Abia State Deputy Director of Sports, implored the NSC to equip the Oghara camp with a standard gymnasium for the conditioning of athletes bodies.

“We don’t have proper training facilities for athletes in the country to fish out talents at the grassroots.

“We lack the basic implements to mould our athletes at the grassroots into world beaters like the Jamaican athletes.

“Something drastic needs to be done by the NSC to address these pressing needs; we are tired of improvising to make up for our lack of equipment.

With good facilities, we can train our athletes for high performance at competitions,” he said.

Igwe  further said that the introduction of a code of conduct by the AFN was a welcome development that was needed to curb the errant behaviour of all personnel in the federation.

“I am sure that AFN had good intentions toward the growth of sports with the introduction of a code of conduct which I feel is long overdue.

“In this season of drug scandals, we need a code of conduct to address glaring issues of misconduct by some of our athletes and even officials.

“If such a code had been in place, we would have been spared the embarrassment we suffered at the recently concluded 19th Commonwealth Games in India,” Igwe added.