Idris Adesina
Assistant national cycling coach, Miebakka Aggo, has urged the country to take the sport seriously.
Aggo, who led the team that represented Nigeria at the 2017 African Continental Cycling Championship in Egypt, blamed a lack of planning for the country’s poor showing at the tournament.
Jacinta Okorie won Nigeria’s only medal (bronze) in the junior girls’ individual time trial event, which covered 15km.
South Africa won the competition while Eritrea and Egypt finished second and third.
Aggo, who spoke with our correspondent on the telephone, said the country needed to develop the sport at the grassroots.
“Going for the competition in Egypt, we had some good bicycles to train with. These bicycles were mostly donated to the team by some private organisations but at the competition, some other countries had better equipment than we had,” he said.
“Our cyclists too are getting older and as a result they are not able to produce the same results as they were doing a few years ago.
“Nigeria will continue to struggle in cycling until we have the required resources and investment in the sport.
“Our aim should not be to catch up with the South Africans and the Eritreans. We should be aiming to be like the best cycling countries like Australia, Britain and others. The top countries are succeeding because they place high priority on the sport unlike Nigeria.
“We did well at the All Africa Games in 2015 but two years after, we were struggling at the African championships. This is because the other countries planned better than we did.”
The coach said the country had been unable to produce many young cyclists in recent times due to a lack of planning.
Aggo added, “We need to replace the old cyclists we have because cycling is a time-bound sport. The old cyclists we have will keep winning but when they get to the international stage, they will not be able to cope well.
“The sport needs to be introduced to children and the advantage should be taught to them so that at a young age, we will have cyclists who can cycle faster than we currently have.
“Many countries are ahead of us while we are better than some others but the quest for success on the international scene for Nigeria remains with the administrators and private organisations.”
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