Commonwealth Games: Nigeria ‘wanted more but inexperience affected us’

Sunday Adeleye, technical director of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), says the country should have won more medals than it did at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Nigeria placed eighth with 11 gold, 11 silver, and 14 bronze medals.

But at the just concluded Games in Gold Coast, Australia, Nigeria finished ninth with nine gold, nine silver, and six bronze medals.

The technical director of AFN said Nigeria “wanted more” but “inexperience” made it impossible.

“We wanted more but this is what we have with the young ones because inexperience also affected us,” Adeleye said.

“That is why you see that I exposed a lot of them this time so that we can also conquer this. You could see that from the relays, we carelessly lost some medals that were due for us to get.

“But because of the inexperience, we won’t say we are satisfied. So, we have to go back again to work on those things and see how we can correct them.

“The athletes did themselves and Nigeria proud. I will say this is just the beginning, we will go back to the drawing board to steer what we know how to do best.

“We want to believe and rely more on home-based athletes. Because we believed in them, we have seen a proof of that.”