One of Nigeria’s longest-serving sprinters, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, has warned athletes involved in age falsification of the dire consequences of such act in their careers.
 
Age falsification has been a major impediment that is militating against the country’s efforts towards developing grassroots sports. At the just-concluded Eighth National Youth Games in Asaba, Delta State, stakeholders canvassed the need for deliberate steps to eliminate age cheating.
 
According to Egwero, any athlete who deliberately reduces his/her age is digging an early grave for his/her career. The athlete, who competed at the London 2012, and Rio 2016 Olympic Games and the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, blamed ignorance for athletes’ resort to age falsification.
 
“One major disadvantage of age cheating is that such athletes never achieve much in their career,” Egwero told The Guardian. “I have seen several situations where older athletes, who reduced their age and competed as junior athletes ended up retiring from the sports while I am still active.
 
“Some athletes do cut off as much as five, six, or seven years from their true age, and when they are expected to be at the peak of their careers, the energy is no longer there. That is why you see a lot of Nigerian athletes/players fading away when they are expected to be at their peak going by the age that they declared. There is no advantage in age cheating as far as sports is concerned,” he stated.
 
He added: “As stakeholders in Nigeria sports, I think the first approach is to end this win-at-all-cost approach to tournaments. If Nigeria wants to do well in international events, we must take deliberate steps to eliminate age cheating.
 
“If we fail to address age cheat, the aim of staging youth tournaments will be defeated. I am also advising parents who want their children to win at all costs to stop it. If you connive with a coach to cut down the age of your child just to meet the required age for a competition, you are indirectly digging the grave for your child’s sporting career because he or she might end abruptly at a time that people are expecting him/her child to move forward.”
 
Egwero praised the effort of the Delta State government in hosting the National Youth Games for the second time, adding that the youth games remained the most important competition in the country as far as sports development is concerned.