By Uzor Odigbo
Nigeria’s female athlete, Blessing Okagbare has flayed the Sports Ministry’s paltry sum of $5O00 training grants describing it as too uncomfortable.
The Africa’s 200m record holder said in recent television interview from her base in the United States that the Sports Ministry should pay athletes the amount budgeted in their proposal to government, adding that, $5000 as training grants cannot solve anything.
“I’m too uncomfortable with it.”
“If the Ministry was paying athletes monthly training grants, perhaps, the proposed $5000 would have been enough, but they don’t pay anything, so why give that kind money to athletes who spend more on training, medicals, travels and feeding all season,”Okagbare said.
She said she had no problem with the list of athletes released by AFN but queried the lack of effort in preparing them for the Africa Games in Morocco.
“I have no problems with athletes on the list, there must be a list anyway, the problem had been the preparation of those on the list before the games. How are they being prepared? I’m only speaking for myself because athletes can be funny, when you think you are speaking for them, some feel somehow, but this time, home-based athletes should be taken care of in terms of preparations and unfortunately, they have been left alone for too long, so it’s not enough to compile list of athletes for the games, the problem is that no effort had been made to prepare them for that purpose.”
The national 100m champion insisted that the sports ministry has the sole responsibility to finance athletes’ preparation for Games which they reneged.
The Sapele born female sprinter however, didn’t wholly commit to attending the games as she avoided enquiries concerning her expected performance, but insisted that athletes financial motivation should be paramount and not only expected podium performance.
