Nigeria swimming quartet of Colins Ebingha, Clinton Opute, Abduljabar Adama, and Tobi Sijuade won the bronze medal in men’s 4x100m Freestyle Relay with a time of 3:26.01 at the 13th African Games in Ghana.
In an exclusive interview with www.aclsports.com, President of the Nigeria Aquatic Federation (NAF), Chinoye Aliyu hailed the swimmers for living up to expectations at the Games.
She revealed the swimmers performances in their individual finals adding that the federation is proud of them.
Aliyu revealed that the Nigeria Aquatic Federation will continue to give opportunities to athletes who are ready to make the country proud.
She said, “I feel elated and I want to say kudos to everyone in the Federation for their contribution. We were given four athletes for the sake of the relay and they delivered. In their various individual events, the swimmers had a good time finishing between fourth and sixth in the finals which means we could have conveniently delivered silver and bronze medals. The swimmers lived up to expectations and the Federation will continue to cherish them.
Aliyu said the Federation has mapped out plans to attend international championships within and outside Africa later this year.
She said, “In 2024, we are hosting the Zonal Championship (West to East Africa) and attending the Paris 2024 Olympic Games as universal, as well as hosting several national championships. Nigeria will participate in the African Championship in Angola and attend the World Aquatic Championships in Hungary by December”.
Aliyu called on coperate companies in the Southern part of Nigeria to invest in swimming.
She said, “Swimming is an aquatic event and all the oil firms operating in the Niger/Delta regions should invest and encourage young swimmers because it is human capital development, empowerment and a way of keeping the youths busy.
