Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF) top shots are singing praises to all competitors, coaches and officials for raising the standard of the event on offer at the 19th National Sports Festival in Abuja.
Speaking at the close of the Taekwondo contest at the 2018 festival, NTF president, Margaret Binga and technical director, Chika Chukwumerije echoed various achievements gained by individuals and collectively.
While Binga said the festival accorded competitors opportunities to build their confidence levels ahead of big events outside the country, Chukwumarije enthused that Nigeria now stands a chance of excelling at the Africa Games next year in Morocco.
Binga enthused: “When opportunities are given to all and there is a level playing ground, you build confidence.
“Here at the National Sports Festival, we have seen record being set and broken as well as upsets.
“We have seen that the coaches in the grassroots are really doing a lot and this has built the confidence on the home-based athletes.
“They were given the same platform to compete with our elite athletes that were here to compete in the festival.”
Chukwumerije added that he was impressed mostly by the junior ones that had been medalists at the last African Youth Games in Algeria.
“I think we have prospect from what I saw in Abuja. We can confidently say that Nigeria is sure of good outing in the next African Games.
“We just need to brush up the athletes before the games and they can spring surprise against any team in the team.
“I am impressed with what I saw and we hope we can get some of them into camping for the games early next year,” Chukwumerije concluded.
