Nigeria deserves no Olympic medal –Onigbinde

A former Coach of the Super Eagles, Adegboye Onigbinde, has said Nigeria does not deserve to win a medal in the ongoing London
Olympic Games.
Onigbinde, who spoke with our
correspondent in a telephone
interview, on Thursday, said the
country did not prepare for the
games.
He said winning a medal at the
Olympics takes 12 years of
adequate preparation and that
the Team Nigeria’s preparation
was not enough to produce
winners in a competition like the
Olympics, where only the best
compete. The FIFA tactician
added that he was not
disappointed at the dismal
showing of the Nigerian
contingent to the Olympics.
He said, “Look at the William
sisters; do you know how many
years it took their father to take
them to that height?”
Things started looking bad for
Nigeria in London when all the
table tennis players were
knocked out early at the Games.
Among them was Segun Toriola,
who attended his sixth Olympics.
Onigbinde says Nigeria should
invest in young athletes who
have medal hopes.
“Look at the average age China,
USA, Britain, Korea brought to the
Olympics. Look at the average
age of our athletes to the
Olympics. What is the average
age of our table tennis players?
“Africans are physically endowed.
That’s why you see athletes of
African descent amassing medals
at the games for even western
nations but this is not the case
for Nigerians.”
Calling on the people in charge of
sports in Nigeria to embrace
modern standard in the
preparation of athletes for
competition, the CAF instructor
said Nigeria must separate
developmental programme from
competition.