The Minister of Youth and Sports Development Solomon Dalung has received the gymnasts who won medals at the 2017 Regional African Gymnastics Championship in South Africa early this month.
The Gymnasts comprising 1 boy and 10 girls including a 5-year old won two gold medals and 9 bronze at levels 4-9 of the championship.
Receiving the gymnasts, Barrister Dalung expressed gratitude to the Coach of the young team Anthony Asuquo for his determination in grassroots sports development.
“When I came on board, I discovered that we had depleted the profile of our national athletes and that led us to recycling of our professional athletes which has been resulting in poor podium performances.
“As a result, I came up with the policy of massive grassroots sports development. It will remain our focus. It will remain our policy that we must discover young talents and develop them so that they can realize their potentials. The Gymnastics Federation with some other Federations have keyed into this policy. We must practically demonstrate this and in demonstrating this, we must get younger people to be involved in sports. At much younger ages, they should be attracted to the sports of their passion. They should be encouraged and supported so that they can develop.”
The Minister went on to commend the 5year old gymnast Lara Anot who won the first bronze medal.
“If a 5-year old gymnast can win a bronze, you can imagine what will happen in the next five years when she’ll be 10. It means this great country will have an athlete that will dominate the Gymnastics space for the next ten to fifteen years before retiring. Therefore, I want to congratulate our great gymnasts for making us proud.”
Earlier Coach Asuquo had thanked the Minister and the President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee Engr Habu Gumel for their support towards the championship. He expressed happiness for the results recorded so far in the sport.
“We competed with over 500 gymnasts and won 2 gold and 9 bronze medals. We have been training tirelessly. Four hours a day in Nigeria. I promised the Honorable Minister that I will do my best to ensure that Gymnastics is well known in Nigeria. I also thank Engr Gumel for his support with flight tickets and the Minister for his listening ears. I will try my best to get the gymnasts ready for the country. I also thank the parents who went out of their way to assist and support the team.”
Barrister Dalung also directed that some financial assistance be rendered to the team to support them. He also called on Federations to send in their proposals for tournaments ahead of time as government does not store money in the offices.
