Lack Of Competitions Contributes To Poor Performance – Athletes

Athletes in Rivers State have attributed their unimpressive performance at both national and international competitions due to lack of local competitions and tournaments.
Hope Nwokoma and Judith Jonah, Badminton players in the state said this in separate interviews with Tidesports at the weekend, in Port Harcourt.
According to them, lack of tournaments at the local levels is gradually bringing down grassroots sports development, saying that most times hidden talents are discovered when local tournaments are being organized.
“We are not happy that there are no competitions, this is really affecting we the athletes because we don’t know whether we are improving on the game or not.
“It is obvious attending tournaments make athletes to gain experiences, consequently improve”.
They further stated that one of the things that contributes to poor performance of Nigeria athletes is lack of training facilities and encouragement.
“When athletes does not have good facilities to train, there is every tendency that they will not do well in competitions.
“Apart from that, Nigeria sports administrators don’t know how to motivate athletes”, they stated.

Etengo Dimkpa