The caretaker committee chairman of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF) Ibrahim Abdul has stated that it is the plan of the committee to have a doping-free sport in the nearest future.
Abdul who was represented by board member, Lawrence Iquaibom, at a seminar organised by the federation with the theme “The Menace of Doping in Sports”, held at the VIP Lounge of the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, Uyo, said building a federation devoid of doping remained a target of the board.
“As soon as this committee was inaugurated, the chairman mentioned specifically in one of our meetings two months ago that we were going to try to educate our athletes, our coaches and our referees so that they can come at par with what is obtainable globally.
“That is why when we decided to put up this competition, we decided to put up this together, which is athletes and officials in the area of doping in sports, because it is a teamwork.”
“We need to work together as a team in order to eradicate this ugly incident in weightlifting”.
The chairman added that incidents of the past made the seminar timely.
“We don’t want this ugly incident that happened in the past where we were banned for years and stopped from competing and the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports had to pay heavy fines to happen again.”
“We are urging our athletes and coaches to not just listen but to implement what they learn so that we will be able to have a drug-free weightlifting federation in the nearest future.”
The seminar brought to an end the National Weightlifting Championship tagged “Champion of Champions” – a collaboration of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation and the Akwa Ibom State Government – which took place in Uyo from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th August, 2021.
