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Sunday Bada, the technical director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, has promised athletes a better year ahead.

Speaking about the
newly released calendar by the federation at the weekend, Bada said the
programmes were carefully drawn to ensure better results are achieved
both locally and internationally.

“The year is filled
with different activities both locally and internationally; amongst
other events we have the All African Games and the World Championships
coming up and we hope to do well in these events. Very soon we will be
calling for a close camping exercise where we will be monitoring our
athletes closely,” he said.

The Olympic Gold
medallist added that the federation had taken the importance of
grassroots development into consideration, hence the addition of such
programmes in its long list of events for the year.

Effective implementation

Members of the
Nigerian athletics community have commended the federation for finally
coming out with the events it intends to pursue for the year, they were
quick to add that implementation of the programmes alone will determine
the results the country will get at the end of the day.

Bamidele Taiwo, a
former 100m champion, said the new programme released by the AFN will
give the athletes better focus as they have been training blindly
before now.

“It’s good we now
have a calendar; you now know what is happening and where it is taking
place, this I believe will make the athletes better focused as they
strive for better performance this season,” he said.

For Kola Adebayo,
who coached Dorren Amata to an African Champion’s title, said the
challenge for the federation is implementing its programmes.

“I have taken a
good look at the programmes and I must commend them for the good job
they have done. However, we hope they will actually carry out these
programmes this time around. One major problem over the years has been
sponsorship; we need corporate bodies to come support sports if we will
move forward,” he said.

Olu Sule, a former
National triple jump champion and now coach said his major concern is
the political situation of the country, which he fears might affect the
federation’s calendar.

“You know this is
an election year and that has to be put into consideration, aside that,
the support the federation gets from some of the state government might
not be forthcoming as they will be focusing on the elections. Let’s see
how it goes but I believe it would be a good,” he said.

The federation hopes to kick start the year with the National All
Comers championship scheduled for February 18 and 19 at the Liberty
Stadium, Ibadan. The Second National All Comers holds in Lagos.