AFTER assessing Nigeria's build up to the 2012 London Olympic Games, American athletics legend, Lee Evans has advised the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and other federations to forget next year's games and commence training for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.The 1968 double Olympics gold medallist told The Guardian in Calabar, Cross River State, that Nigeria may not do well at next year's Olympics in London following its inability to prepare well for the games.'First of all, Nigeria should forget about London 2012 Olympics and start training for Rio de Janeiro 2016 in Brazil. They can identify the young athletes now and train them for 2016.'For London 2012, it is going to be some patch work and that is not going to work out because nothing was done last year. So London 2012 is lost already,' Evanssaid.He, however, admitted that the country still had lots of prospects to regain its feet in the sprint events, but added that there must be conscious efforts to develop the sports by the authorities concerned in Nigeria.He said: 'The blood that runs in the Jamaicans and black Americans is West African and so Nigeria has prospect in sprint event, but nobody cares. Although they said they care, but they don't really doanything and this shows that they don't care.'To start with, they have to put good coaches in schools. I taught at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) for three years in the 1970s and I know I trained my students to be great high school coaches. But the present games masters in schoolsare double zero because they are not taking the class the way they should have taken it in schools. They are not that kind of coaches or games masters that should coach in schools.'I have been in Cross River State for the past two years, and I have found out that the game masters don't know anything because they have not been taught anything. When I was in Nigeria in the 1970s, I know I taught but when you go out now it is very discouraging as the standardof coaching has dropped,' he added.Evans and his coaching team guided the Cross River team to victory in the athletics event of the just concluded Calabar 2011 National School Sports Festival.He admits that a lot of talents were present at the fiesta, but lamented the absence of national federations and their coaches, who failed to use the competition to unearth talents for the national teams in all sports.'In this competition, I have seen lots of young talents, especially from Ondo and Cross River because they are both dominating athletics.'I am sure Ondo must have some kind of programme put in place in the state to develop and train athletes. They really gave Cross River a tough time in the championship. I am sure most of their coaches are my former athletes.'The Nigeria School Sports Federation's (NSSF) duty is to organise competitions and it is up to the AFN and federations' coaches to come and see what talents they can discover. NSSF has done their job,' he said.He added: 'When I heard that Innocent Egbunike has been named as the national coach by AFN on television, I called SundayBada, who is AFN's technical director to tell Egbunike to call me because I wanted them in Calabar to see talents, but I never heard from them.'Evans, who was inducted into the United States National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1983, believes the educational system has failed the country when compared to what obtained in the 1970s and early 1980s.'When I was in Nigeria in the 1970s and early 1980s, the athletes that I coached were about 55 with all of them going to universities in America and they all got Degrees.
Click here to read full news..
