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How poor Lagos facility hampers Nigeria’s quest for swimming medals

By Olanike Igandan-Dada
26 October 2015   |   4:08 am
BEFORE the last African Games in the Congo Brazzaville, many Nigerians were looking forward to their team challenging Egypt and South Africa successfully for the top position at the competition.
Pool

The abandoned National Stadium, Lagos, swimming pool

BEFORE the last African Games in the Congo Brazzaville, many Nigerians were looking forward to their team challenging Egypt and South Africa successfully for the top position at the competition.

Their optimism was hinged on the return of weightlifting and wrestling (two events, which Nigeria had competitive advantage over other African countries) to the games.

The hosts of the penultimate games, Mozambique, prodded by South Africa, had removed the events from the fixtures, claiming they did not have facilities for them.

The exclusion of wrestling and Weightlifting gave South Africa the edge to win the games on the back of their dominance in swimming. Egypt took the second position, while Nigeria placed third.
But with the return of weightlifting and wrestling at the Congo Brazzaville 2015 games, Team Nigeria was hopeful of reclaiming the first position they won in 2003 in Abuja.

The Vice President of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation, Yahaya Mohammed, projected that no matter what happened in Brazzaville, the lifters would haul no fewer than 15 gold medals for Team Nigeria.

However, things didn’t work out well for NWF in Brazzaville, as Nigerian lifters picked only eight gold, 18 silver and nine bronze medals.

Wrestling weighed in with an additional nine gold medals to propel Nigeria to the second position.
Egypt came out tops in the 2015 Games with over a 30 gold medal gap between them and second-placed Nigeria and over all medals gap of over 100 medals.

Although this is not the first time Egypt would top the table with over 30 gold medals more than second-placed Nigeria (Such was the case in 1991 in Cairo, where the hosts had more than 50 gold medals higher than Nigeria), followers of the games believed that Team Nigeria had the potential to drastically reduce the gap, if not eliminate it.

On return from Congo Brazzaville, some observers opined that rather than pin their hopes on single medal events, which weighed down on the resources available to the team, the National Sports Commission (NSC) would serve the country better if it invested in some multi-medal events like swimming, which at the African Games had as many as 42 gold medals at the just concluded African Games.
Of the 42 gold medals, South Africa took 25, Egypt 11, while the other countries shared the remaining six to other countries. Nigeria had none.

South Africa and Egypt also shared the silver and bronze medals to push their bid for the top spot on the medals table.
It is a fact that one swimmer, Egypt’s Ahmed Akram, won four gold medals, when Team Nigeria’s football squad, with 23 players, ended with only a bronze medal.

On return to the country, officials of the NSC preached the need for the country to diversify its search for medals at major international competitions, with more emphasis paid to swimming and some other multi-medals events.
But the pertinent question is: Where are the facilities to actualise such dreams?
One of the enduring legacies of the 1973 African Games, hosted by Nigeria, is the National Stadium Lagos, which, according to experts, has all the modern facilities required in an international event centre.

Unfortunately, all these facilities, bar none, have been left to decay.
The swimming pool, which produced former African champion, John Ebito, who became an All American gold medalist while at the Chicago State University, is now home to rodents and lunatics.

According to a source at the National Stadium, Lagos, the swimming pool started deteriorating in the early 1990s and was officially closed to swimmers in 1999.

The source, who pleaded anonymity, told The Guardian that because of the poor state of the pool some of the swimmers have taken to other sports.

To win medals in swimming at international competitions like the Olympic Games and the African Games, according to the President, Nigeria Aquatic Federation, Fatai Williams, the athlete has to undergo serious training in Olympic size swimming pools that have all the modern facilities associated with the sport.
Sadly, most of the swimming facilities in the country are not up to scratch, he said, adding, instead of putting into working order the pool at the National Stadium, Lagos, it has been closed to athletes since 1999.

Because the standard of the pool is high, he said, it is difficult and expensive to repair or maintain.
He disclosed that organisations are now discouraged from building 50-metre pools like the National stadium, which is of the Olympic standard, because it is expensive to maintain.
“The 25-metre pools are also acceptable, so we advice people to build such because they are cheaper and easier to maintain,” he said.
He pointed at the Makurdi Stadium pool as one of the most modern facilities in the country, which has not been completed because of the cost implication.
“The pumps are so big and they need diesel to power it, so they will need a standby generator because water must circulate in the pool for the swimmers.
“The water chemical is also very expensive to buy and this has been a problem,” he maintained.

He advised the NSC, owners of the National Stadium, Lagos, swimming pool, to fashion out ways to generate money for the maintenance of the pool, adding that some private pools still function because the owners have commercialised them with the funds generated being used to keep them alive.

One of the effects of the bad state of the swimming, according to Williams, is that the Aquatic Federation now spends money to pay for private pools, where swimmers are trained.
“If we had a training camp now, we would pay the private operators to use their swimming pools and also buy our own water chemicals and that is an expensive way of training athletes,” he stressed.
Williams revealed that although it had not been officially confirmed, there are plans to concession the pool to private investors.

Using as an example the Airport Hotel, Ikeja, swimming pool, which is still in excellent condition even though it was built in 1960, Williams argued that commercialisation would restore the National Stadium facility to its former position as the country’s main training arena for swimmers.

He lamented Nigeria’s poor maintenance culture, adding that the officials should change their attitude to public properties if the country must attain the height its human capital deserved.

Also reacting to the poor state of the swimming pool, Samuel Jesimiel, who is a member of the Nigeria Aquatic Federation, said he feels devastated each time he sees the state of the facility.
“That pool you see there made me an international swimmer today. I swum in that pool and won medals for Nigeria.
“We have no understanding of what we have, if we did, we would keep our things in proper order,” he said.

Jesimiel said it was the responsibility of the NSC to maintain the swimming pool and other facilities at the National Stadium, adding, “but the Nigeria Aquatic Federation could assist to bring it back to life because we have our technical knowhow. We know where to go in the swimming pool and within three months it would be back.’’

Recently, NSC Director General, Alhassan Yakmut, promised that his administration would look at ways of making swimming one of the country’s productive sports.
This, he said, would be done through repairing the infrastructure, especially the swimming pools, to give swimmers access to proper training facilities.

His position is buttressed by the manager of the National Stadium, Lagos, Mr. Abolare Alanamu, who revealed that the abandoned Lagos swimming pool has been contracted out to a private organisation.
“The pool has been contracted out,” he said, adding, however, “but I really cannot say why the project has been abandoned.
It could be due to lack of funds.”

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