In an exclusive interview with Sports247, Nigeria’s National Athletics Coach, Gabriel Okon, expressed his confidence in the Nigerian team’s readiness for the upcoming 13th All-African Games.
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“We’re always ready to compete at this level, including even at the world level. So I think we’ve done our homework. It’s just time to showcase what we got and we’re all battle ready,” Okon stated.
When asked about Nigeria’s performance so far, Okon revealed that the team has been making significant strides. “Well, I think as of last time I checked the medal table, we’re like 6th. Then we moved to second.
As of yesterday, I was told that we’re third, but we have not started our stronghold, which is athletics. So give and take, we’re likely going to finish the top three on the medal table for sure,” he said.
Okon also shared insights into the team’s training regimen. “Today is actually our second day of training, as a matter of fact, it’s our third session of training. Some people trained in the morning yesterday, some trained in the evening. We’re training here. So it’s our third session of training.
It’s our second day of training. So like I told you, we are ready to go and we’re training. We’re just fine tuning right now. We’ve done all the hard work. It’s just now to fine tune and balance here and there and which is part of the management team.
That’s what we, the coaches, are doing. We’re just managing the team, making sure that we fine tune and put everything in place,” he explained.
When put on the spot about the team’s gold medal prospects, Okon was optimistic. “Well, I can say between eight to ten gold medals,” he predicted. As the games draw closer, the Nigerian team, under the guidance of Coach Okon, is clearly focused on delivering a strong performance.
Team 9ja AAG Update from the 13th All African Games brought to by 9ja Cafe Rhum.
