Paris Olympics: We Are Working Towards Setting New Records, Says Sports Minister

By Jonathan Ugbal

The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh says the ministry is working closely with the sporting federations to set new records as the country prepares for the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, France later this year.

“The target is to outperform our previous performances,” Senator Enoh said, while addressing journalists at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory after a lengthy meeting with the various sports federations, the National Olympics Committee,NOC Paralympics Committee of Nigeria, PCN among others where critical decisions were made in preparations for the games.

About 75 athletes have qualified for 11 sports so far which is the highest number of sports Nigeria has qualified for in history. It is also the first time Nigeria will have an athlete compete in Cycling.

And, the Minister says, “I think that it is important to do a quick check on the state of our preparedness towards the Olympics and the Paralympics – the State of the various sports that we are competing in, about twelve of them and the projections in terms of what we are to expect out of the Olympics and the Paralympics.”

The Minister who disclosed that the ministry, in consultation with the federations, NOC and PCN has selected Germany for camping, averred that the federations discussed the plans for training in – country and abroad as well as other plans.

“What the ministry did today is to provide a common venue in Germany and a timeline between the first to the 21st of July. The federations, also based on their own peculiarities have also made their own suggestions. In the next few days, I believe all of that is going to be harmonized and we will get to a common position.”

On the selection of training facilities, the Minister who said the Federal Government is not building new facilities for training of the games, stated that; “the various venues in-country have been identified based on the facilities that are available and they are going to be suitable for each of the sports that is going to be sent there. The training venues abroad have also been identified based on their competitiveness and availability.”

Furthermore, he expressed hope that doping bill will be read for a third time on the floors of both Chambers of the National Assembly, upon resumption from recess next week Tuesday and passed for onward forwarding to the President for assent.