By Uzor Odigbo
Nigeria’s marathon Legend Col.Abass Mohammed rtd. has called for more training for coaches in Nigeria to improve the quality of AthIetes they produce for international Competitions.
Mohammed reiterated that when local coaches don’t have enough training on modern techniques in athletics, it becomes a herculean task to produce runners with capacity to perform.
Mohammed represented Nigeria in many marathon races, long and Middle distance competitions etc. with a national record yet to be broken.
Recall that Col. Abass Mohammed rtd. was one of the instructors that trained Secondary Schools Games Masters in a 3-day high capacity AthIetics training workshop that ended in Gombe State last Wednesday.
“I have seen that some of our young coaches training our AthIetes are depending on their past exposure and had not improved themselves with enough training and this is dangerous. When AthIetes are not getting the right training, improved performance from them will not be achieved,” he said.
He added that why Nigeria’s AthIetes improve in performance when they go abroad was not lack of talents or improved facilities, but for good knowledge of the sport impacted in them by trainers or coaches using modern AthIetics languages and techniques.
He called on the Sports Ministry and AthIetics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to synegise in providing coaches across board with coaching courses to improve themselves