There is a popular adage which says that one should “make hay while the sun shines”. It simply means that you should make good use of a good a chance or time that you have before it is too late because it will not last forever.
In sports, administrators and athletes alike should know the importance of long preparation as against the usual last minute rush which we refer to as ‘fire brigade’ approach in our clime.
The preparation for a major competition like the Olympic and Commonwealth Games is a mixture of physical conditioning, skill drills, mental focus with intermittent competitions at national or international levels and a planned rest. It is a long-term plan which takes about four years and athletes are then expected to peak at the right time. In serious countries, athletes get grants to prepare ac- cording to their class.
This will enable them pay for their needs all through the period leading to such competitions.
That is why they choose the competitions they attend so that they don’t get burnt out before the major and more prestigious ones.
Nigerian-Canadian, Daniel Igali is a good example of how a country should prepare an athlete to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games.
When he was spotted in 1994 at the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, they did not rush him into the Olympic Games that was two years away in Atlanta, United States but prepared him for the 2000 edition in Sydney, Australia.
Between 1994 and 1999, he had progressed from being a national, regional and continental champion to a world champion in his weight category in wrestling.
So before the 2000 Olympics, he had fought everyone who was known in his weight category and had knowledge of their strength and weaknesses before the Sydney Olympics. Therefore he didn’t come out of the blues to ‘pick’ the wrestling gold medal, which was Canada’s first ever Olympic gold in wrestling.
When he became president of the Nigeria wrestling federation, he tried to replicate the Canadian approach with our wrestlers but the bureaucracy in government didn’t allow the plan succeed much.
He made personal efforts getting support from some individuals and the government of his home state of Bayelsa to ensure they trained properly and participated in competitions.
He made headway on the African continent, a little success at the World Championships with a couple of his female wrestlers. One of his wrestlers, Blessing Oborududu put the icing on Igali’s managerial cake at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with a podium performance with a silver medal, Nigeria’s first in wrestling.
I have given this background information to emphasize the importance of early and proper preparation of athletes to help them put up podium performances at major sports events.
Administrators should not expect to reap when they didn’t sow or sowed improperly. Medals of any hue are not there for the taking but could be earned through painstaking planning and execution of administrators plan and the athletes’ sacrifice of time in proper training.
It was a philosopher of ancient Rome, Lucius Annaeus Seneca who said that “when preparation meets opportunity, it creates success”.
This is what has often happened to Nigerian athletes who, out their own personal sacrifice, win medals for the country and not through the planning of those appointed to manage sports in the country.
A very good example is the case of Chioma Ajunwa who was more or less abandoned by officials of the federation which was to prepare her for the Atlanta ‘96 Olympic Games.
But for a Segun Odegbami who supported her preparations and training through some corporate organisations, she may not have used the opportunity when she got into the final of the women’s long jump to shock the world with her 7.12m jump which earned her both the gold and the African record at the time. It took 25 years for that record to be broken by another Nigerian, Ese Brume with a leap of 7.17m.
Because Nigerian administrators never plan early for athletes by making training grants available early enough, they participate in all sorts of competitions to earn money to support their preparation while their rivals who get support from their government pick the competitions they take part in.
At the 2026 Commonwealth Games which ends today in Glasgow, Scotland, Kanyisola Ajayi was a gold medal prospect going by pre-games times and wins he posted in com- petitions. He won his semifinal race easily but in the final he got beaten by his Cameroonian rival, Emmanuel Eseme and Lachlan Kennedy of Australia who got gold and silver respectively.
Editor of Saturday Vanguard, Onochie Anibeze succinctly put it this way, “he burnt himself out before the Games”.
Of course without grant and support from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, nor the National Sports Commission, NSC, he must earn money to train and take care of his other many needs.
This is why it beats the imagination of any sensible man why funds are not made available or even if it is made available, comes very late.
After very late and shoddy preparation which doesn’t take more than a few weeks to two months maximum, our sports administrators carry bags of dollars to competition grounds and dangle it before athletes, promising to reward them handsomely(?).
When athletes eventually win medals, majorly as a result of sheer determination, these officials do the most bizarre thing, ask the athletes to flaunt the dollars given them as winning bonuses while they pose for a photo session with them grinning from ear to ear.
The truth about this primitive display of dollars which are never made available when athletes are preparing for the competitions but is made only three months before, is that it creates confusion and allows for easy diversion of the funds.
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