SUNDAY Adeleye, Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), on Thursday said inexperience was a major challenge for the country’s athletes at the just-ended Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast.

Adeleye told newsmen in Abuja that the federation went to the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in the Australian city with young athletes so as to expose them to international competitions.

“Everybody was on top of their game and everybody did Nigeria and themselves proud. But this is just the beginning.

“We are going back to the drawing board to re-strategise and do what we know how to do best ahead of other continental and international championships,” he said.

He however disclosed that the federation wanted to rely more on the home-based athletes because it believes in them and has seen a proof of this at Gold Coast.

“We wanted more medals, but this is what we have with the young ones because inexperience affected us.

“That is why we exposed a lot of them through this competition so that we can conquer inexperience,’’ Adeleye said.

He however said Nigeria “carelessly’’ lost some medals in the relay events because of inexperience.

“We can say we are satisfied, but we need to go back to the drawing board and work on the lapses of the athletes to correct them before the African Championship,” the AFN technical director said.

He said the federation’s focus was on grassroots development and the African Championship would be another platform to expose the athletes.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria won one gold, two silver and one bronze medal in athletics events at Gold Coast 2018. (NAN)

– Apr. 19, 2018 @ 19:19 GMT

AE