From Saka Bolaji, Minna
Hockey Federation of Nigeria (HFN) has blamed Nigeria’s ouster from the 2017 African clubs hockey championship in Kenya on lack of early preparation for the tournament.
Hon Sani legbo Kutigi who made this known on Wednesday in Minna during a chat with sports writer on the arrival of the team to the country admitted that Nigeria representative, Niger Flickers Hockey Club did not go to camp early to make the team technically sound.
According to him, “many of the countries that feature in this year championship were in camp for almost six month and this were the team we beat thoroughly last year in Zambia”.
Kutigi, who is also the chairman of Niger State Hockey Association, maintained that Nigeria’s performance at last year tournament in Zambia was impressive due to early preparation.
He said: “Last year we won a Bronze medal at the continental level and we were hoping to build on this achievement in the same competition this year but we couldn’t make it pass through the group stage, hopefully by next year if we are able to pick the ticket again to represent Nigeria we will surely do better”.
He thanked the Niger state government for sponsoring the team to the competition and maintained that next year they will not disappoint the state and the country at large.
Leave a Reply