Former Nigerian 400m runner and Olympian Innocent Egbunike has added his voice to the numerous voices about the current state of athletics activities and why it’s not working anymore in Nigeria today.
The Olympic bronze medalist emphasized the need to get athletes from the grassroots and have good athletics officials who really love the game and are ready to impart into the young athletes.
According to Innocent “We lost the touch of developing athletes from elementary school level, interhouse sports, National high school meetings, Sports Festival. We need to have officials with great compassion for track and field and a desire to want the athletes to succeed. We need to catch them young!”
When asked about the quality of coaches needed for a successful athletics team, the one time African champion called athletics coaching a ministry “Coaching is a ministry and I made all the mistakes and my goal is to not let any athlete I coach make the same mistakes “I made. A father’s dream is to see his children do better than he did.”
In time past, athletes were groomed in the streets of Nigeria as they make their way to stardom. That gives the hint that Nigeria does not lack talent, grooming could just be the problem Innocent reiterated “We have the talents and I see a glimmer of hope in the future, we just need to plan ahead. A failure to plan is a plan to fain.”
According to the Olympian, Nigeria need to brainstorm and figure out what worked and didn’t work for us in the past. He also emphasized the need to have good men and women to lead the way in the development. We need to brainstorm what on what worked in the past and what didn’t and then bring in a few good men and women to lead the way in developing “Individuals that are dedicated and determined to see Nigeria succeed. We have a sea of talents, there is enough Chidi Imoh, Fatima Olukoju, Chioma Ajunwa, Blessing Okagbare and the list goes on out there ready to be discovered.”
Innocent Egbunike won an Olympic bronze medal in 4×400 metres relay in Los Angeles 1984. He finished sixth in the final of the individual 400m. In the following four years in Seoul, he came out fifth. He also won a silver medal in the 400m at the 1987 world championship.
