Long Jumper Wants Nigerian Athletes Well Motivated

Yusuf Ali, the 1990 former Commonwealth Long Jump Champion, wants the nation’s leaders to ensure that Nigerian athletes are properly motivated for the London Olympic Games, justless them100 days away.

Ali, who holds the African record in the long jump, spoke with newsmen in Lagos last week.

According to him, there is the need to motivate the athletes for better performance by paying them their training grants.

“Their allowances and training grants should be given to them, to serve as a form of motivation,’’ he said.

Ali urged the National Sports Commission (NSC) to ensure that the Chairman of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (Chief Solomon Ogba), was promptly reimbursed moneys he had spent on the track and field team.

“He (Ogba) took the athletes to camp in the US and has been responsible for their upkeep.

“I hope he will be reimbursed when funds are eventually released by NSC,’’ Ali said.

Assessing the level of preparedness of the country’s athletes for the Olympics, he said that they had bright prospects of winning medals at the Olympics.

“Judging by the performance of athletes at the Golden League competition, and the reports I have from the U.S. camp, I think we can get four to five medals at the Olympics.

“The fact that the team commenced closed camping in the U.S. about two months ago has not dimmed its chances of doing well at the Games.

“The athletes have been training rigorously and they all know what is at stake at the global sports fiesta,’’ Ali said.

The 2012 Olympic Games comes up from July 27 to August 13, 64 years after London hosted the Games for the second time. It hosted the Olympics for the first time in 1908.