Pius Anakali
1996 Olympic medalist, Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo has charged the sports ministry to take advantage of the just concluded National Sports Festival to prepare for the 2020 Olympics.
The retired athlete said except athletes start their preparations now, they may not be able to achieve much at the next Olympic in less than two years.
According to her, winning medals at the world level requires lot of hard work and adequate preparations, which she noted, cost a lot of money.
“The 19th National Sports Festival was an opportunity to select athletes and prepare them for the next Olympics, if the country hopes to win any medal in 2020. Adequate preparation matters a lot on the side of the athletes and their coaches,” she explained.
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Ogunkoya-Omotayo stressed that apart from early camping, the athletes and their coaches should be put on monthly salary as this will help the athletes to remain focused on their training.
“The government through the sports ministry has to pay the athletes and monitor their preparations. Corporate organisations should also offer their support as there is so much mileage to get from such support,” she said.
She tipped Ese Brume and Tobi Amusan to win medals for Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics if the duo are well monitored ahead of the world biggest sports fiesta.