Habu Gumel, President, Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), addressing weightlifting coaches during the Olympic Solidarity sponsored Level 2 coaching course in Abuja. Seated behind him is Abdul Ibrahim, President, Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF) and International Weightlifting Instructor, Pierce Kyle.
By Emmanuel Afonne
The President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Habu Gumel, has tasked the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF) to nurture talents that would take over from the current weightlifters.
Gumel gave the charge when he declared open the 2024 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) Level 2 Coaching Course for weightlifting coaches, at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja, on Monday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that weightlifting coaches from the 36 states of the federation are participating in the coaching course organised by the NWF in collaboration with the NOC.
Gumel said the weightlifting federation needed to do everything possible to replace its aging athletes to ensure that the country continued its dominance in Africa.
He said the Olympic Solidarity and the International Olympic Committee approved the course because of the performance of Nigerian weightlifters at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the 2024 African Games in Ghana.
“It is important for us to get the support of the International Olympic Solidarity for this coaching course.
“We have been moving around the country organising women commission seminars, administrative seminars in the six geopolitical zones and this one is another one but for weightlifting.
“It is for weightlifting coaches all over the country and we are lucky that the Olympics Solidarity through the International Federation of Weightlifting deemed it fit to get us an international instructor to come and train our coaches.
“They must listen and learn so that they can impact the knowledge when they go back to their states to teach other people.
“Weightlifting is very important and the athletes are doing well; we know their records during the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the African Games in Ghana and we believe that they will excel at the Paris Olympics.
“There is going to be another coaching course for shooting, swimming and others, to train their coaches, referees and administrators,” Gumel said.
The President of NWF, Abdul Ibrahim, said the course would be administered in two parts – theory and practical, on the best practices to adopt in developing the game.
“There is so much happening in sports that the weightlifting coaches needed to know which would be made known to them by a U.S. Weightlifting Instructor, Pierce Kyle.
“This programme is for six days and it is important to develop our coaches for it to cascade down to the athletes to achieve a positive result.
“If we don’t get good results from the states, then we have failed but if we get it right, we will develop our game.
“So, the task before us is to be able to develop new athletes that will take over from the old ones in the next one year, after this programme; we also want to see a general improvement as a result of this course,” Ibrahim added.
Emeka Ajei, Chairman, Weightlifting Coaches Association, said the course would improve their knowledge ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“Weightlifting did so well in the last African Games and I believe that this course will improve our capability, tactical and technical performance because there is no knowledge that is lost.” (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Chinyere Joel-Nwokeoma
