Rio 2016: Para-athletes plead for early camping

By Paul Erewuba

The Para-athletics Federation of Nigeria has called on the National Sports Commission (NSC) to quickly move its athletes to camp ahead of the Rio Paralympics qualifier, to guarantee the team a good outing.
The 2016 Paralympics to be hosted by Brazil  will hold in September this year.
Speaking to Daily SunSport in Lagos yesterday, national coach of the federation, Patrick Anaeto said it has been harrowing for the Paralympians to come to training from their various homes because of transport fares.
Anaeto, who promised that his wards will surpass their previous performance, said despite the difficulties and the challenges they were encountering ahead of the camping, they will qualify for Rio and go ahead to win medals for the country.
“The rate of preparation is high with the help of the Ministry, because we have gone to some international championships. The athletes are measuring up to the ones they are going to meet at the paralympic Games. But our appeal is that we need to start closed camping now.”
“We are not promising the number of gold medals that we are going to win, but the truth is that the quality of preparation determines the quality and quantity of medals you win.
We have done the qualifiers and still have one more to go, in Dubai. If we start camp early, I think it will go a long way in saving athletes, time, money and focus. We are trying to build now. despite the late camping, but we are hopeful. the only problem now is that many of the athletes who train daily come to the Stadium from far away.
Many of them do not have jobs and money and they do not feed well after training. If we are put in camp early, it will help them a great deal”, Patrick stated.