Estimated reading time: 6 minute(s)
Hassan Abdulsalam
The General Manager of the Silver label Marathon in Nigeria, Lagos City Marathon, Dr. Yusuf Ali has revealed that falsification of ages affects Nigerian athletes.
Dr. Yusuf said this on Monday while delivering a lecture on the downturn of Nigeria’s Athletics Fortune at the 2020 Ogun State Chapter of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Lecture in Abeokuta to herald the commencement of SWAN week.
He said that athletes are not responding to modern training due to their age, saying that use of Performance enhancing drugs affects Athletes.
According to him, “Most of our athletes falsify their ages, which can only guarantee success in youths and sometimes junior championship, but not at the senior level.
“Athlete’s training today is tied to their age. Many of our athletes are not responding to modern training because they are far older than the age they claim, also use of performance enhancing drugs affects them”.
The Director added that Sports Ministers fund football at the expense of other sports saying that, football still struggled.
He said further that primary, secondary and Tertiary institutions sports are dead, claiming that National Football teams struggled in CAF competitions .
“Successive sports ministers in Nigeria treat athletics like a poor distant cousin or as one with leprosy. When journalists call our ministers of sports minister of football I laugh. Yes it is true that sports ministers in Nigeria fund football at the expense of other sports but they don’t actual fund football.
Our National Football teams are struggling, the performances of our football clubs in CAF competitions attest to the sorry state of our league. Football at community, Primary, Secondary and tertiary institutions are dead.”
However, the Chairman of Ogun SWAN, Hakeem Akintunde in his opening speech said that members of Ogun SWAN operated professionally.
According to him, “the numbers of members has increased considerably under our administration and we were able to operate in a professional manner with a sustainable relationship”.
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