Nigeria is to focus on sports that it has comparative advantage and will bring medals at the forthcoming African Youths Games in Algeria.
Adamola Are, Director Grassroots Sports Development, Ministry of Youths and Sports, disclosed this on Tuesday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja.
Are said: “We have African Youth Games and athletes from African Youth Games will qualify for Olympic Youth Games. There will be 28 sports with five demonstration sports at the African Games coming up in Algiers in July.
“We are going to encourage all sport federations to give us very good athletes that can represent Nigeria and win medals for us and to ensure that we qualify for the Olympic Games.
“We are going in for as many as possible where we have comparative advantage to win medals, not just going for jamboree sake.
“We want to go there, we want to win medals especially in areas of swimming and gymnastics; those are very important areas.
“Those are the areas where Egypt and South Africa always have an edge over the country. We want to see how we can battle them to wrestle from them some gold medals.
“If you qualify in Africa, then you go for the Youth Olympics but we cannot really determine which sport to participate in yet.”
Are said that competitions like the Paramilitary Games and President Muhammadu Buhari Open Water Sports were lined up to develop grassroots sports.
AYG: Nigeria to participate in games that will bring medals
