The Challenges Of Athletics In Nigeria: A Case Study By Nnaemeka Anyanwu

Athletics is known as the fundamental of sports with 24 events in running (100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, 10000m, marathon, 110m hurdle, 400m hurdle, 3000m hurdle, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay, 20km walk and 50km walk); jumping (long jump, triple jump, high jump and jump with javelin); throwing (javelin throw, discus throw, hammer throw and shot put) and decathlon.

Lets be frank, the world has left us behind in all of these sports. In the past, we compete with heavy weights like the USA and Jamaica in the Sprint events but fast-forward to this present day, we are struggling to compete with the likes of South Africa and Cote d'Ivoire in the continent we use to dominate.

The best Athlete in the 400m is Wayde van Niekerk, a South African. The best athlete in the 100m dash isn't a Nigerian, women 100 dash, on current form, Blessing Okagbare isn't African's queen. The Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate the middle and long distance races. In the field events, we don't even come close.

So how can the most populous nation in the continent not have the talents to not only rule Africa but compete favourably at the world stage. But that is where the irony lies, we do have the talents and these talents would go through hell or hot water just to be seen. So what then is the problem?

STRUCTURE! The structure is the problem. This consist of the infrastructures, the administrators and the templates on which they run the sports. People would argue, 'but our heroes trained and worked with this same structure and achieved greatness'. That argument is simply false.

The structures of the 80s and 90s are gone. It was nothing like what we have now. I just started walking when Chioma Ajunwa won an Olympic gold medal at the 1996 games in Atlanta, USA but from articles, videos and chats with former athletes, that structure was a workable one. This one isn't.

So what does a workable structure look like? I'll tell you!

A structure that catches them young:

In the world today, the success of modern sports depends on many aspects including the personal talent of athletes. As a matter of fact, talent identification from an early age and training eligible athletes in proper times is known as the most important factor in this success.

The present structure doesn't interrelate with the schools as catalysts for discovering athletes at the right age, with the right age, through school- sports events. That needs to change. Those who administer the sports have to leverage on the structures the schools already have and use it as a scouting pool for picking the best athletes at the right age. It has to play its one part though, by staging age- grades events through the schools

A Structure that makes it easy for well organized and funded track and field clubs to emerge and thrive.

Sports is serious business. If you run an industry that is not productive, you will attract less man power and even lesser investors. Athletics in Nigeria isn't productive and that's simply because we don't have the people with the desire nor mindset to make it one.

Stephen Francis in 1999 decided to form the first organized track and field club in Jamaica which gave athletes the option of staying at home. He is the coach of Asafa Powell, Melanie Walker, Shelly Ann Fraser to name a few. Today most Jamaican athletes are home based and they are the best.

We have a wider talent pool, imagine what the future of athletics would look like if we have a well organized and funded clubs like Making of Champions springing up across the country. Amazing!

A structure that take care of its athletes and coaches.

For Nigeria to excel in Sports, athletics to be specific, athletes need support especially the young ones. I met a young athlete on a Facebook group that centres around athletics in Nigeria- Nigeria Athletics Incorporated ( NAI), this young star told me he is thinking about quitting the sports because he doesn't have the funds to keep shuttling from home to the stadium everyday. That's sad.

That's just one of many athletes going through difficult moments financially. There has to be programmes deliberately set up to cater for these athletes. In the present structure, it doesn't exist. Not one! So right now, we are losing our talents to other countries who have the structures to take care of them. But more worrying is, the present structure is killing dreams and aspirations.

To coaches, they are the most important human resources in athletics, because they communicate with athletes directly in learning the motor skills and demonstrating the advanced skills. Our coaches are facing many problems, which obliged them to leave professional coaching while others coach scarcely (in the modern world of sports, coaching is a professional job and occupation). 

Despite this situation, those administering the sports has not, nor are they willing to provide solutions for removing these problems to motivate the coaches to continue working or even improving their knowledge.

A structure that provides modern equipments and facilities for training and organising events.

I tickle a bit whenever I hear people argue that Nigeria is rip to host the Commonwealth Games. We can't stage our National Sports Festival for how long now? One of the reason for that is lack of facilities to stage the event. That's how bad it is.

An athlete gets better by training with standard equipments. In most sprint training in Nigeria, coaches subject their athletes to running round the tracks everyday. Little or no core strength or lateral development programs for the athletes because the equipments are simply unavailable.

The Americans, Jamaicans, South Africans, etc are leaving us behind thanks to the infrastructures they have for sport training and events. To catch up, we need to follow the same route, period! 

A structure that makes staging of athletics events and meet compulsory.

Does the AFN have a well planned calendar of events for a full season? What is the use of training your guts out everyday if you are never going to get the chance to show how good you are or how much you have improved. Well like a friend would always say, I'm not training for Nigeria, I am training for my adopted country. He doesn't have one yet.

Every athlete cherishes athletics events but when it doesn't come month after month, it can be demoralising. A lot of locally based athletes have moved on from the sports because of this, and I don't blame them. What's the point of training if you can't put it into practice.

To conclude, the AFN had its elections recently, its saddening that the pre-election talks were mainly about image promotion. No one really talked about the issues bedevilling athletics in Nigeria.

Truth is, it doesn't matter who leads, if the structure doesn't change- Nothing will.