Sports Briefs
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PLACING second in the just concluded 11th African Games in Congo Brazzaville is not good enough. That was the verdict of Al-Hassan Yakmut, director general of the National Sports Commission, NSC. Team Nigeria beat South Africa to the second position after winning 47 gold medals as against 42 for the latter.
Assessing the performances of the Nigerian team in Congo, Yakmut said finishing second behind Egypt was not the best, adding: “The Presidency actually wanted Team Nigeria to finish on top of the medals’ table.” Yakmut said in an interview when he returned from Brazzaville that, “it is not right to say that by finishing second, we met the target set by The Presidency. Nigeria deserves to be Africa’s best and that is what we must have at the back of our minds.”
Nigeria hosted the eighth edition of the Games in Abuja in 2003, placing second behind Egypt on top of the medals’ table. The Egyptians had beaten Nigeria to the top spot during the second edition of the Games hosted in Lagos in 1973, just as Team Nigeria lost the first spot to host, South Africa, at Jo’burg ’99 edition.
Four years ago in Maputo, Team Nigeria surmounted many obstacles to place third overall behind South Africa and Egypt at the end of the 10th All Africa Games.
The excuse put forward then was that Mozambique, the host country, played politics by excluding sports like weightlifting and wrestling, which were considered as Nigeria’s traditional areas of strength. Another issue raised by the athletes, coaches and administrators then for the third position finishing at Maputo 2011 was that Team Nigeria also lost ground in table tennis and other combat sports.
— Oct 5, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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