Sometime last year, one of my write-ups on this platform centred on Nigeria’s dwindling performance in the men’s Long Jump and the need to regain our dominance in the event, having produced greats like Yusuf Alli, Ajayi Agbebaku and Paul Emordi in the past. I also lamented about how it had become increasingly difficult to produce Nigerian male jumpers who could attain distances of 8.00m and beyond.

It’s the dawn of a new Athletics season, and it is my hope that the administrators of our sport have already mapped out strategies to take Track and Field to the next level in 2019.

The long awaited 19th National Sports Festival (NSF) eventually came to an end last week, officially bringing the 2018 season to a close. The NSF was thrown open to elite and amateur athletes alike, and one argument that dominated the landscape in the course of the 10-day competition, was whether or not foreign-based athletes should be allowed to compete at the NSF.

Last week, I started this series by highlighting the  achievements of two of Nigeria’s most promising athletes in recent times, Tobi Amusan (100m Hurdles) and Ese Brume (Long Jump), who were both nominated in the ‘Track and Field Star of the Year’ category of the 2018 Nigerian Sports Awards held in November, and how Nigeria ought to be investing in them ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Several weeks ago, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formally awarded the 2022 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to Senegal, making it the first ever African country to host the Olympics. The competition has been tagged ‘Dakar 2022’. Other bidders for the competition included Botswana, Nigeria and Tunisia.