Friday, 29 April 2016

RIO OLYMPICS: Rowing, Canoe and Sailing Federation assures on better outing


LESS than five months to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, the board of the Nigeria Rowing, Canoe and Sailing Federation is confident that Team Nigeria will not come back home without a medal after the London 2012 disastrous outing.


The secretary of the federation, Olubunmi Ola-Oluode while speaking in Lagos on Friday assured Nigerians who are anxious over the reoccurrence of London 2012 Olympics where Team Nigeria had no medal to their name that, with divine providence on their side coupled with the hard work already being put in place by the duo of Chierika Coco Ukogu and Jonathan Akinyemi, Nigerians should expect at least a medal.

In her words, “With the situation on ground, we have one athlete that has qualified for Canoe Slalom in person of Jonathan Akinyemi who is an Olympian.

“With the experience he has gathered in the last Olympics in London, we believe he will be on the medals table courtesy of the training he is going through now.”

About Chierika Ukogu who will be the 1st black African to qualify for the Olympics in 100 years, Olubunmi revealed that, “She is undergoing her training and we are also hopeful that she will be on the medals table because she is training hard and with the support of the British Rowing and International Federation, we believe she will be up there.”

Meanwhile, the President of the Federation, Rear Admiral Festus Porbeni (rtd) has once again reiterated his resolve to use his influence in bringing more corporate organizations to invest in the sports following the recent donation of 20 rowing canoes to the federation by Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc.


He explained that with the sports having nothing less than 16 gold medals in rowing and 12 gold in canoeing at the Olympics, Nigeria stands a better chance of being a global force if the raw human resources scattered across the coastal areas of the country can be harnessed.

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