As the two-day Ecowas Junior Athletics Championship came to an end in Banjul on Sunday, Nigerian dominated the championship, winning nine medals and followed by hosts Gambia.
This is the second time the Gambia is hosting the Ecowas junior championship after hosting the championship in 1999. This championship brought together 8 countries from the Sub-regional.
In an Observer Sports interview, the head coach of the Nigerian Athletics team, Akimpelu Saheed was a quite happy man for the triumph. Nigeria, he said was well prepared for the championship.
Inspite of winning nine medals, Saheed was believed that the Nigerian team could have won more medals.
Idamaduou Praise Oghenefejiro is a Nigerian female athlete for 400m and 200m races. She was also happy that her time was going home with smiles.
Sulayman Manneh, a Gambian athlete who ran for 100m and 200m said the team did great, but attributed the Ramadan to the drop in their performance.
“The reason for not showing a good performance is because of [we are fasting] and most of the other countries and athletes are not fasting,” he said.
Nyima Camara is a Gambian athlete who ran for 500m and she was participating in her maiden international championship. She told this paper that the championship helped her to gained exposure.
by Arfang MS Camara