AFN blames distractions for male athletes’ poor performance at Commonwealth Games, other events

Seigha Porbeni

Yahoo Yahoo phenomenon serious issue, says Porbeni 

The Head Coach of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Seigha Porbeni, has blamed the dwindling performance of the nation’s men in recent international competitions, including the World Athletics Championships at Oregon, U.S. and the just concluded Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, on stakeholders’ refusal to deploy science in athletes’ identification, growth and development.

“Moving along with the prevailing economic and social changes in the country today, the male child is more affected or targetted. The introduction of online trading or the Yahoo Yahoo phenomenon has provided a serious distraction to our male athletes,” Porbeni stated.     For Nigeria’s male athletes to meet the challenges posed by their female counterparts, Porbeni said: “There is urgent need for us to have an understanding of Sustainable Sports Development (SSD), particularly the aspects of athlete’s discovery, nurturing, growth and development. 

“Ensure the application of science in athletes identification growth and development for the podium, recognise the role of DNA haplotype, give grassroots sports pride of place to ensure a bottom up approach in athletes identification growth and development and stage more grassroots competitions to support the present National Youth Games and at the same time, expand both the sports and events.”   A former Director of Sports in Delta State, he said Nigeria needed to change the paradigm in the matter of training requirements.   “Without prejudice, trainable athletes in the sprints, jumps are mostly found in the Southwest and parts of the South South that used to be Mid West, namely Edo and Delta. Inclusive of states like Ogun,