The technical director Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Sunday Adeleye has expressed optimism that the team plans surpassing the record of their predecessors at 2014 Glasgow Games.
Adeleye in Abuja said that with the level of preparations by athletes, he believes the team would make Nigeria proud.
Nigeria won 3 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze medals from eight sports at the 2014 Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
He said, “We are going there to surpass the previous tally of three gold medals. The athletes and officials are ready; they have worked hard and I believe it will pay off at the end of the day”.
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“So far so good, we are in top gear our athletes are ready, the muscles are firing well and the house is in good order. For sure, we are going there to make Nigeria proud and at least to raise the flag of our country high”, Adeleye said.
He revealed that most of the athletes overseas are on scholarships adding that it will be difficult for their respective schools to release them for major events sponsored by the AFN.
He noted that what the current AFN board has done is to build the home grown players to complement with those abroad.
He said, “It’s the norm now that we believe in every athlete, we just don’t want to neglect some other athletes from one part of the world and say we are concentrating on only those ones in America. You’ll understand with that right now we are having challenges even with the athletes in America because they are on scholarship”.
“When we have major events we double our efforts and expenses to bring them down because the schools will not release them due to the scholarship program. What we have to do is to build the home grown core” he ended.
