Porbeni faults absence of hurdles, javelin, others, canvasses return of PE teachers

Former Nigeria athlete, Seigha Porbeni, has faulted the decision to remove some athletics events, including hurdles, triple jump, discus, and javelin from the National Youth Games (NYG), whose eighth edition ended in Asaba, Delta State, recently.

Although stakeholders have applauded the 2024 edition of the Games, Porbeni a former head coach of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) feels that the NYG would not serve its purpose if certain key events were not reinstated in the competition.   

“How do you discover talents when those who make decisions on sports and various events in the National Youth Games are mostly non-professionals?” Porbeni asked.

“They canceled canoeing, soft, and baseball, just to mention but a few. Then for the approved sports, they selected the events and weight categories. Take athletics as an example, there were no hurdles, triple jump, discus, and javelin. You will agree with me that this is the right age to introduce these kids to these Olympic sports and events.
 
“Even the events were limited to the number of athletes. Why not allow the various sports federations to organise their sports in accordance with their international rules and regulations?” He asked.

Porbeni, a former Director of Sports in Delta State, who also spoke on the poor financial state of various sports federations said: “The Sports Ministry must be financially involved with federations’ preparations throughout their preparatory period before and during major competitions.”

To revive grassroots sports across the country, Porbeni called for the return of Physical Education (PE) Teachers in schools.

“Let’s take it from the schools of the past. Principals/Headmistresses and proprietors competed among themselves to have the best athletes and highly desirable ones to win whatever trophies that were available within their regions and nationally. Today, it is not so. It is sad.

“Sadly, those who furthered their education in our universities were never heard from again as our university system has a way of killing talents. So, there is a need to bring back Greyer Cup and Hussey Shield, call it any other name. Thereafter, we should improve upon the competitive value of NUGA, NIPOGA, NATSEGA, etc, as well as, have in place, inter-collegiate championships. I introduced this some years ago under the late Anthony Ikazobor as Minister of Sports,” Porbeni stated.