Paralympics Athletes Urged To Shun Drugs

The Chef de Mission to the 2012 Paralympic Games, Simon Ebhojiaye, has urged athletes representing Nigeria at the 14th Paralympics Games to shun performance-enhancing substances.

Ebhojiaye told newsmen in Lagos that athletes should shun food and drugs that could contain banned substances, so as to avoid testing positive and being penalised.

“If any athlete is found positive after undergoing tests A and B, he or she will have himself to blame because we cannot afford to put the country to shame.

“Not only the athlete will be punished, the coaches will also be punished because they are usually with their athletes for a long period of time.

“It is easy to discover these performance-enhancing substances because there are machines that can easily detect the substances without waiting for a long time,” he said.

He also advised the athletes to start training on their own before they would be invited for camping.

“My advice to the athletes is that they should start training before they are called to camp. I cannot give a specific date for the commencement of the training but I know it would be very soon.

Out of the 20 sports to feature at the games, the country would take part in three, Para-Table Tennis, Para-athletics and Powerlifting.

He said the government had laid down plans to begin camping of athletes, stressing that there would be training tours to allow them prepare well ahead of the competition.

The Games would hold between August  29 and September  9 in London.

Other events to feature include, Para-cycling, Para-Archery, Para-Athletics, Football 5- a-side, Football 7-a-side, Goalball.