Samuel Onikeku, Technical Director, Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), on Thursday said that Nigeria would raise more athletes ahead of the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

Onikeku told journalists in Abuja that continuous competition would help the federation to discover more athletes for future international competition.

According to him, the Federation will look forward for new and raw talent at the upcoming National Youth Games (NYG) in Ilorin in October.

He also expressed the hope that the COVID-19 pandemic would be suppressed for the federation to take athletes to training tour ahead of any international event.

According to him, this will start with new athletes that will be discovered in Ilorin next month.

He said the federation would have its board meeting on Sept. 27 to deliberate on the development of the sports.

“In the 12 months that we have in a calendar year, at least for nine months the Athletics cycle will be very busy and what our athletes needs is continuous competition which will make them kick on time.

“We will nurture the new talents discovered in Ilorin. We will have line up programmes for the Under-15, Under-20 and the senior level,” Onikeku said.

He assured that the federation was set to elevate the sports in Nigeria and source for sponsorship to keep the athletes busy.

“Athletics have been suffering some down time. I came on board as a Technical Director so as to see how I can use my experience as an ex-athlete to uplift the sports in the country.

“We will bring back the glory of sports like in the 1990s when I was an athlete. During that time we had sponsors like Mobil Producing Nigeria.

“The issue of sponsorship will not be problem for us because we will look for sponsorship that will elevate the sports,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the 2021 National Youth Games (NYG) will hold from Oct. 10 to Oct. 19 in Ilorin, Kwara.