The President of Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, Yahaya Mohammed says the country weightlifters have accomplished their mission at the 12th African Games in Morocco.
Nigeria weightlifters won 16 gold, 13 silver and 18 bronze at the Salle Nahda Sports hall in Rabat.
Mohammed said the reason why he contested the position of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation was to change the face of the federation.
He added that the choice of parading younger athletes was due to their performances at the African Games trials held in Abuja.
Mohammed said, “I am really excited because this has been my target since I elected president of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation on the 13th June, 2017 and it has come to reality at the 12th African Games. The reason why Nigeria is placed second is because of the medal haul from the weightlifters.
“The reason why the board decided to feature younger athletes in this year’s African Games edition was due to their spectacular performances during the trials and they did not disappoint us”.
Mohammed said the next mission is to prepare the weightlifters for Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan.
He said, “Immediately the weightlifters get into the country, the federation will select lifters that will participate in Tokyo. We are going for an International championship in Thailand, Qatar and two others; I believe that we will resume earlier preparations and make sure we put our athletes in camp five months before the Olympics games.
The welfare of the lifters is our priority and we will ensure we give them a proper training, stay in a conducive environment for training in order to motivate them. My prayer is for Nigeria to win medals at the Olympics. We are expecting gold medals during the Olympics”.
congratulations to nigerian weight lifting team