A 5,000m gold medalist at the 67th All Nigeria/Cross River Open Athletics Championships in Calabar in June, Kefas Williams, has urged the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to seek sponsors for competitions in a bid to improve long distance races participation in the country.
Speaking in Lagos, Williams said the AFN should plan towards organising regular competitions in the long distance category, so the youths would be encouraged to build a career in them.
“I am appealing to the federation to assist us by attracting sponsors who can help to develop the event and make it to be taken more serious,” said Williams.
“We’ve got the potential to succeed because the talents are there, but they have not been exposed to enough competitions that would aid their development. By the time we begin to have frequent competitions, I can assure you that a lot of teenagers would pick interest in long distance events.”
He added that the AFN should scout for young talents from the grassroots level and develop them for national and international competition.
“If we really want to succeed, we need to go back to the grassroots and create a formidable plan to discover talents.
“A lot of youths love the long distance races. It is high time we began to look into other areas where we can make the country proud,” Williams noted.
My advice to AFN is to contact Big Brother for sponsor,
How can Nigeria have a group called Big Brother who lavishing money every year to other countries,
While Charity begins at home,
Kunle you are right,
Big Brother is originality from Nigeria,
But Nigeria cannot boost anything from Big Brother,
Kunle you are right,
I am jealous of seeing Big Brother taking what belong to Nigeria and give it to other countries,
and making the youth of other countries riches while Nigeria youth are suffering,
please i realy need a sponsor con long distance race and i can assure you that i can do that very well, cus am very good in it
please i will be expecting your reply on my inbox as soon as possible