One of Nigeria's fastest 100m and 200m athletes in the 1990s, Osmond Ezinwa has expressed his unhappiness with the present trend in athletics in the country citing the poor system as a major factor for the downward slide of athletics.
The younger of the Ezinwa twins who holds a personal best of 10.05 in the 100m and 20.56 in the 200m told Ijaw boy in a chat that the structure and system that produced his likes in the 90s no longer hold sway in the country anymore.
“We don‘t have that kind of system in place that produced the likes of Olapade Adenekan, Francis Obikwelu his brother Davidson, Oluyemi Kayode, Chidi Imoh and to make it worse even if we do have one, who is ready to follow this system?” He asked
“We had a relatively good performance at the Commonwealth Games but lots of work still needs to be done from the grassroots so we could continue to produce quality athletes that would burn the tracks for at least 10 years just like Onyali Bada and et.al did”
“The new generations of athletes are not thinking about their future. To them, it is all about going to Europe to earn money at all cost. Most of them will run for a penny and school is out of the question for them. Nothing is wrong with making money, but you have to lay a solid foundation,” he said.
On the need for the Federation to involve former athletes like him to help groom new athletes for the country, Osmond said, “I’m not prepared for the politics involved but If that will solve the problem, why not? But you must note that being a great athlete does not necessarily translate to being a good coach.” he quipped
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