Minister praises the athletes.

The Nigerian Government has said that it will pay special attention to any athlete who wins a medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, in Glasgow, Scotland.

The Minister of Sports, Tamuno Danagogo, made this disclosure while speaking on the victory of Nigerian athletes who have won medals for the country at the Games.

A press statement signed by his media assistant, Patrick Omorodion, quoted the minister has saying, “The government is going to pay special attention to our gold, silver and bronze medalists in this Games. Once we finish from this Games, we are going to monitor medalists to ensure that they are in shape ahead of other tournaments. We are going to design a monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for them so that we keep tab of everything they do. If we handle them this way, I am sure that we will be in a position to use them to win medals in the forthcoming Olympics and other Games in the future.”

Mr. Danagogo said President. Goodluck Jonathan was expecting the athletes to win more medals.

“We are proud of our athletes for what they have done for the country so far and the government is prepared to give them all the necessary support they need to succeed,” he said.

Oluwatoyin Adesanmi, on Sunday, won another gold medal for Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in the women’s 63kg weightlifting while Obioma Okoli won silver bringing Nigeria’s number of medals to seven. Blessing Okagbare won the women’s 100m  gold on Monday.

Mr. Danagogo said that the performances of the athletes in weightlifting had shown Nigeria could still win more medals.

“If we keep up with this tempo, I am very optimistic that we are going to win more medals and I am urging our athletes to keep up the tempo so that we can continue  harvesting more gold, silver and bronze medals,” he said.

- See more at: PREMIUM TIMES