By Daily Sports Nigeria on April 2, 2024

President, Nigeria Taekwondo Federation, Abdullahi Saidu-Baba, has said that Nigeria needs new talents in taekwondo and other sports in order to compete better in international competitions.

Taekwondo won one gold, one silver and four bronze medals at the just-concluded 13th African Games in Accra, Ghana, and although he acknowledged that their feat at the Games came through a lot of hard work, Saidu-Baba pointed out that it was a far cry from their target of three gold medals.

He, therefore, advocated the retirement of all old athletes to pave the way for new blood heading into the 14th African Games in Cairo, Egypt.

Saidu-Baba believes that the process should be set in motion towards this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, France, as well as the National Sports Festival in November.

“I think what we need to do is go back home and check for areas of correction. Those athletes that are ageing, we need to retire them and start building up young athletes,” he said.

“We need to look at these parameters and begin to prepare our young athletes across the nation towards the next Games in Egypt. Aside that, we must look keenly at preparations. We need to give them enough exposure. These athletes need more competitions locally, more competitions regionally and more competitions internationally.”

Saidu-Baba added that preparations for tournaments should start earlier with athletes competing in their required categories.

“Believe me, by the time our athletes go for the respective events that they fit into, we’ll be ready for the next African Games.

“Our biggest problem, though, is that we don’t start early. Why are we starting late – two months, three months? Our National Sports Festival is coming in November. We should instill these events into the sports festival. When we do that, we are preparing the mind of the athletes for what is coming ahead,” he added.

Source Punch Ng

Posted April 2, 2024

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