NAN-S-22
Hockey
By Dorcas Jonah
Abuja, Dec. 23, 2016 (NAN) Muhammad Adamu, the Assistant Coach of Niger Flickers male hockey team, says the team will put up a good performance to ensure victory at the 2017 Africa Club Champions Competition.
Adamu told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja that the Minna-based team was ready for the competition which holds from Jan. 7 to Jan. 15 in Kenya.
“We are 80 to 90 per cent ready for the competition. We have a team of International Hockey Federation (FIH) coaches with our technical crew building the team for the competition.
“We have been in camp for two weeks now and with the level of training we have had, I am optimistic that we will perform maximally.
“With the level of our preparations, if we don’t win the cup, then we will at least play in the final matches.
“We have been able to put into practice all the new techniques learnt from our foreign partners during training which had helped us greatly,’’ he said.
Adamu said however that the major challenge of the team now was lack of modern facilities and inadequate time for training.
“The time allocated to us for training is usually very short and this affects our level of preparation, while the delay in getting the right equipment for training is also a big challenge.’’
Adamu called on the Ministry of Youths and Sports to ensure there was a camping of the team for a month at least to enable quality preparation for the competition.(NAN)
DE/DS/OLAL
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(Edited by Dauda Shehu and Olawale Alabi)