19th Aug 2014 The Nigerian Government seems to be making positive plans for upcoming young athletes. According to the report from THISday live, The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), on the establishment of a high performance training centre at the University of Port Harcourt. The IAAF certified centre, is to be first of its kind in Africa and is currently nearing completion at the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) main campus.
Speaking at the Signing ceremony which took place at the just concluded 2014 African Athletics Championships in Marrakech, Morocco a Director at the NSC, Hawa Kulu-Akinyemi who signed on behalf of Nigeria said that there is no doubt that the centre will be a success considering that just few years after its inception, the centre has produced potential champions like Ese Brume, winner of the women’s long jump gold medals at both Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and Marrakech 2014 Africa Athletics Championships and Divine Oduduru, winner of the silver medal in the 200m at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Oregon, USA last month. She only hopes that the IAAF and CAA may take this kind deed a step further by sending qualified personnel to the centre to assist in training the athletes and officials.