According to two-time Olympics medallist Enefiok Udo-Obong, local-based athletes need more competitions and better coaching to be able to perform as their foreign-based counterparts.
Udo-Obong, winner of gold and bronze medals in the 4x400m relays at the Sydney and Athens Olympics believes that the notable advantage enjoyed by Nigerian athletes abroad is because of their access to better coaching and the opportunity to compete at various meets.
“Competition is the best form of training it gets you into peak performance, it makes you realize your mistakes, it builds confidence so we must compete and we do not have enough competitions in Nigeria.
“So that’s one problem we have, another one we have is the quality of coaching. We need proper coaching, we need to train our trainers and then obviously too, we must start from the youth ages.”
The 36-year old who holds an advanced masters degree in Sports Administration and Technology from the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique, Lausanne, Switzerland believes domestic athletes are hindered by administrators who are not quick enough in embracing modern methods to match the ambition shown by the athletes.
“Athletics in Nigeria could be better; it’s not developing as fast as it should. The administrators are not developing as fast as the athletes are developing but generally, we have to work hard for whatever we get in Nigeria and believe that sooner or later we would get it right”, Udo-Obong concluded.
