The Nigeria Taekwondo Federation has said it is planning to attend international tournaments to prepare the national team for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.
The President of NTF, George Ashiru, told our correspondent on Sunday that the body was banking on the support of the National Sports Commission.
Nigeria came third in taekwondo behind Egypt and Ivory Coast with one gold, four silver and two bronze at the Brazzaville 2015 All Africa Games.
Ashiru said, “We are working with the NSC to give our athletes more exposure, especially before the Olympics trials, which will be in March 2016. If these same athletes that went for the All Africa Games go for two internationals between now and the Olympics trials, they will be ready. They had no international exposure when they were preparing for the All Africa Games.
“We had five finalists in Brazzaville but they met opponents that were better ranked and more experienced, and some of them met the number one in Africa. All of them lost to Egypt except the one that won the gold. The major difference is that the Egyptians had better competition experience and were better exposed.”
He added, “Our old champions have retired. The girl who won gold, for instance, joined us just two years ago. She went to the Commonwealth Games and picked up bronze.
All we need is to continue to expose them.
“It is down to money. When we ask for money to go for tournaments, it is not for fun. It is for our athletes to meet their potential opponents and study their match tactics and strategies. They need to meet these people at tournaments that don’t really count as such so that they can try their different tactics and strategies and get psychological boost.”
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