It seem as though August 2017 is far, but it is just a few months away as countries participating in the IAAF World championship in London are preparing while Nigerian athletes are unsure of their fate.
The country’s athletes miss the championship billed for August 4-13, 2017 owing to the fact that the country’s athletes have been unable to achieve the ruling body’s standard.
It is required of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria as a matter of urgency to organize a series of competitions for the athletes or more so, the elite athletes need to feature in meets between now and July 23, 2017 to meet the new standards.
“We need to do something now otherwise we will not be at the worlds next year, Gabriel Okon, who is president of the Nigerian track and field coaches association, told Vanguard.
“The IAAF has set new standards, which became effective from October 1, 2016 to July 3 2017. This means our athletes need to compete and meet these standards.
“From the look of things we haven’t even started anything yet. We need to do so urgently so that we can have a team ready,” he concluded.
Some of the new yardstick set by the IAAF are 100m, 10.12seconds for men and 11.26 for women.In the 200m, the men will need to run 20.44 and the women 23.10. While in the 400m, 45.50 seconds is the required performance for men and 52.10 seconds for the women.
It is important for the Sports ministry to intervene now as the AFN has been quiet since the last outing in Rio 2016.
According to IAAF, the LOC has achieved all milestones to date and has identified and received approval on all venues.
