Two-time Olympics medalist Enefiok Udo-Obong has stated that Nigerian athletics can be better than the current state of development.
In a chat with brila.net, he stated that domestic athletes have long lived under the Shadow of their foreign counterparts.
“Athletes have to change their mentality,”
“It’s a mental mindset and you have to know that you have what it takes and you have a lot of the things the brands want. Everything that is soft skills that an athlete learns – goal setting, targets, strategies, a mindset of winning; an athlete just needs to change those soft skills into saleable skills in a corporate world.
“Once you see an athlete like that and even, he’s still performing, companies can identify their own values in such an athlete and they can sponsor such athletes.”
The Captain of Team Nigeria to the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester also believes that domestic athletes are being held back by administrators who he thinks aren’t embracing modern methods quick enough to match the ambition shown by the athletes.
“[Athletics in Nigeria] could be better; it’s not developing as fast as it should. The administrators are not developing as fast as the athletes are developing but generally, we have to work hard for a belief that sooner or later we would get it right.”
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