Abia State table tennis head coach, Ifeoma Isaac has charged the country’s sports officials to ensure that all talents discovered at the ongoing 8th National Youth Games (NYG 2024) are kept together in a special camp.
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She reasoned in an exclusive interview with sports247.ng that past situations in which new talents are discarded soon after major competitions should not be repeated this time out.
Coach Isaac, however, noted that everything she has seen so far at this year’s Games in Asaba, Delta State has been better than the previous edition, a development which she believes is an augury of better things to come for Nigerian sports.
She stated with delight, “The environment is impressive and conducive for the players. One improvement is that, last year, there was no A/C, but now it is in the hall, and everybody is enjoying the games.
“No heat causing discomfort or scratching for the athletes and other people.”
Coach Isaac went on to express satisfaction with the eligibility status of 15 years or below for all athletes at the 8th NYG, which she believes will help Nigeria overcome issues of age cheating shortly but stressed that continuity should be maintained after the ongoing Games.
“It’s a good idea for Nigeria to use under-15 status for this competition. However, it should not end with using them here, and the top players will then be discarded.
“They should put them in camp for us to groom them and have a good standing team for any future international competition.
“We don’t want a situation whereby these talents would be left without any planning for them after doing well here,” she stressed.
Coach Isaac then called on corporate bodies, sports stakeholders, and the generality of Nigerians to join hands in ensuring that the discoveries of Asaba 2024 are properly groomed towards making the nation proud at the 2032 Olympic Games.
She added, “I also want to tell Nigerians to help us to put these discoveries in camp, organise them and, as other countries do, let’s get high-performance centres for them.
“Let’s put them where they will train regularly, and, at most eight years from now, we will see those who can represent us at the Olympics.
“They will represent Nigeria with the normal age, as we saw in a 17-year-old talent from France who won bronze at the last Olympics.
“We can achieve the same here if we organise our talents properly so that they can also win international medals.”
The amiable ping-pong tactician then spoke about the efforts she is undertaking personally to ensure that her vision for sports development in Abia State, as well as Nigeria at large, becomes a reality.
“I use my money to put my players in camp. I did the same during our preparation for this Youth Games.
“They were all in camp with me, and we were able to prepare them well.
“They trained well, but even when you prepare your athletes well, you still have to pray that God will help them to win,” Coach Isaac conceded philosophically.
She concluded by revealing her targets at Asaba 2024, which happens to be making a triumphant return to Umuahia with a haul of gold medals, not just silver and bronze.
“I have already won some silver medals, but it’s gold medals that are my main priority and the target that I had before coming here.
“Our first medal was silver but, with one of the girls now in the singles’ semi-final, I am hoping she will win and then go on to get the gold medal,” Coach Isaac concluded.
