Nigeria broke a 50-year curse at the 19th ISF Gymnasiade and put the country back on the international school sports map. With 10 athletes competing in track and field events, Nigeria won a 3000m gold medal to finish 21st in the competition’s medal table, which featured thousands of athletes from 63 countries in 20 events.
Six of the athletes made it to the finals of their various events, while Yewa College’s Ronke Akanbi claimed the only gold medal for Nigeria in the women’s 3000.
Speaking during a reception for the 10 Nigerian athletes at the just-concluded ISF event, NSSF President Olabisi Joseph said, “We are so thrilled with the performance of the athletes that with little training, they were able to rub shoulders with their counterparts from around the world. world. the world.
“For most of the athletes, this will probably be the first time they have traveled outside the country and with the hostile climate in France, they dominated their counterparts, which for us, as a federation, has shown that with quality preparation, we can to have our athletes manage to get on the podium in most of the events”.
She said that Nigeria had not participated in the event in the last 50 years, adding that the gold medal broke the curse on France.
“I am proud of our children, arriving in France, they competed with their counterparts from 63 other countries around the world. In the general medal table we are in 21st place, despite the fact that we participated in an event of the 20, we reached the medal table and it is somewhat meritorious.
“In the athletics event we were tenth. We have learned a lot from this world event… we have learned that we must prepare beforehand in order to win more laurels. We will work with the Nigerian Athletics Federation to integrate these children into the mainstream of athletics in Nigeria.
“We will continue to encourage our children to participate in more events to create more platforms for them, so that when we go to the next international school sports federation event, we will return home with bags of laurels.”
In addition to the laurels in France, Joseph was also elected as the first African woman to be a member of the executive committee of the International School Sports Federation (ISSF).
To create more opportunities for Nigerian children to excel in sports, Joseph called on the federal and state governments, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, as well as the Ministry of Education and corporate organizations to support school sports and provide talented students the opportunity to compete with their counterparts around the world.
“We cannot allow the stars we have to rot in this country, let’s give them the opportunity to participate and compete with their counterparts around the world and the ISF has that platform. We will be able to build a stronger Nigerian team to make sure we don’t miss out on all the events organized by the ISF,” he added.
Team Captain Temitope Olusesan said it was a privilege to be the team captain adding that representing Nigeria in the competition was an exciting experience as it exposed them to so many opportunities in sports.
He expressed his happiness that he was able to recover a gold medal and put the country on the list of medal winners in the world competition.
Olusesan joined the call for support from the government and the private sector to provide infrastructure that allows students to hone their skills and be able to compete effectively with their foreign counterparts.
Team coach Ernest Ijeoma thanked the NSSF for giving the students the opportunity to represent the country, adding, however, that the team would have done better had it not been for the inclement weather and unfamiliar food. , which affected the athletes.
He said the students participated in 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 3,000m, relay, shot put, discus, long jump and triple jump events.