Emedolu flays Nigeria’s Commonwealth Games preparations

Uchenna Emedolu, a silver medalist at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, on Wednesday, criticised the country's shoddy preparations towards the 2010 Commonwealth Games scheduled Delhi, India from October 3-14,2010.

"It is unfortunate that the preparations for the Games have been running behind schedule," Emedolu told the News Agency of Nigeria at his Enugu base, where he has a training camp.

"There has not been any national camping ahead of the Games. It is as if nothing is going to happen in Delhi or that Nigeria did not wish to be there," he noted.

He called for collaboration between the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the National Sports Commission (NSC) in order to avoid a national embarrassment during the Games.

According to him, the warning is necessary so that the country will not have to cry if we fail to win medals at the end of the event.

The closed camp is the venue where the athletes are physically conditioned and groomed to optimal performance level.

Media absence

Emedolu noted that even the media hype that normally accompany the staging of pre-games selection trials were absent this year.

"This is not good enough. At the trials which were held at the Calabar Stadium recently, sports journalists were
absent and this robbed the event of glamour that usually characterised such events.

"The absence of journalists did not boost the morale of the athletes to give off their best," he said.

Emedolu, who retired after the 2008 Olympics and has personal best time of 9.97secs, is presently the personal trainer of the country's fastest man, Obinna Metu.

The top former sprinter called for a national camp so as properly prepare the athletes with good training ahead of the Games.