Give Africa Great Athletes – Kalkaba Tasks Nigeria

President of the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA), retired Colonel Hamad Kalkaba has charged Nigeria to bring back the glory days of its athletes by using the center to provide for Africa athletes that will challenge the World.

Kalkaba who was in Nigeria recently said he opted for Nigeria for the High performance Center due to Nigeria’s high rate of talents and great athletes. He said he believes Nigeria should be able to provide for Africa the great athletes she needs from the Center. The former Cameroon athlete said Africa athletes can win huge numbers of gold if they get good support from government the way they pump funds into football.

“I am challenging Nigerians to use the center to bring back the glory days of the country’s track and field.
“There are other countries that I recommend for the center but I decided to choose Nigeria because of its talents. The country has talented track and field stars.
“Africa heads of States should try and put funds into track and field just like they do in football.
“If that is done, I don’t see why Africans will not excel in international championships.” Kalkaba also said; “The Nigeria Athletics President, Solomon Ogba should really be commended for his development of Nigeria athletics.

“When I brought the idea of the center with Ekeji and Ndanusa in 2011, they promised to look into it, but last year in Porto Novo during the Africa Senior Athletics Championships, I discussed it with Solomon Ogba and what he promised (quick action) is what we are seeing today.”

Meanwhile, speaking on the potentials of Africa track and field athletes, the retired Cameroonian Army Colonel said, “Africa has great potentials that the continent is utilizing just 25% of that.

“Africa is targeting 20 gold medals in the next Olympics and in achieving that we need to prepare very well by utilizing the High performance Center in Nigeria and other places.
“We lost our pride to European country because most of the athletes winning medals for them are Africans.” He thanked Diack for supporting Africa.