COACH Godwin Okoro of Anambra Karate says he has commenced training of his athletes in preparation for Africa Games Championship, from Aug.23 to Sep.3 in Morocco as well as Olympic.

Okoro told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Awka on Wednesday, commended the athletes that took part in the 19^th National Sports Festival (NSF) in Abuja.

He said that the state would have performed better in karate but for the fact that it lost three athletes to other states, the lost athletes would have made the chunk of national team players in the competition.

NAN reports that Karate team which comprised four athletes won one gold, two silver and one bronze while one of the athletes who won gold, Ngozi Okoro is the daughter of the coach.

Anambra finished 16th in the overall medals table with five gold, 11 silver and 13 bronze.

He, however, thanked Tony Oli, Chairman, Anambra Sports Development Commission (ASDC), for resisting the overtures to drop the team from participating in the sports fiesta.

“I want to thank the chairman who insisted that we should go, he took good care of us and we are happy we did not disappoint him.”

“They approved only four athletes after serious resistance to allow us be part of the contingent but we came back with one gold, two silver and one bronze,“ he said.

-NAN

BE

– Jan. 9, 2019 @ 13:19 GMT |