SEGUN Gbayi, the athletes representative of Nigeria Judo Federation (NJF), on Thursday, said he would ensure that the body gave adequate consideration to athletes’ participation in competitions.
He said in Lagos that it was through such means that athletes would acquire reasonable points that would boost their participation at major international games such as African championships at various levels.
He said that the focus of the NJF was to improve the present standard of athletes.
He added that “the Federation will be meeting in January to deliberate on issues and ways of improving the development of the sport, and the objective is going to be on athletes.
“Although we have been doing well, we must improve the standard of athletes in 2015 because that is the only way of getting the best from them.
“And as their representative, I will make sure that issues related to the general welfare of athletes are given adequate attention, especially in the area of participation in competitions.’’
According to him, all programmes in 2015 will be handled well as they will serve as build-up to the 2015 All Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville and the Olympic Games in 2016.
“The idea is to avoid fire brigade approach to these games because it involves serious preparations,’’ he said.
The representative said the body would also ensure that its proposals were made available to the National Sports Commission as soon as the meeting was concluded for prompt response.
