Athlete Bemoans Appointment Of Foreign Coach

Asilver medallist in
heptathlon at the 1999 All-Africa Games in Johannesburg, Patience Itanyi, has urged the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to make public Maurice Greene’s earnings.
Itanyi, who condemned the appointment of the U.S. sprinter by the AFN, told newsmen that the circumstances surrounding Greene’s appointment were questionable.
“We need a lot of transparency in the dealings of the AFN because, for some of us, there are lots of negativity surrounding the federation,” Itanyi said.
AFN had on April 10 announced the appointment of Greene, saying the American was to groom the country’s athletes.
Greene is a former world record holder in the 100m with a time of 9.79 seconds from 1997 to 2004.
But Itanyi said Nigerian athletes had won laurels at international competitions without foreign coaches and saw no reason why the AFN could not look inward for a national coach.
She said it was a shame that a country like Nigeria could not get competent coaches “out of several national coaches who are in their abundance in the country’’.
“It is a big shame that we have coaches who have developed athletes to the level of winning medals at competitions, yet the AFN still have to go get a foreign coach.
“Medals have been won without foreign coaches and it is sad that we do not utilise the little financial resource we have to cater for our young athletes.
“But rather, the AFN decides to use our scarce financial resources on irrelevancies which lead to a waste of funds.
“These wasteful resources can be used in building our athletes,” the former heptathlon athlete said.
Itanyi said it was, however, rather sad that Nigerians rarely questioned the authorities when issues bordering on the interest of the public arose.