Posted: Monday May 12, 2008

_{Nigerian quartets for Makurdi, Abuja relay meets}

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Athletics Federation of Nigeria officials are eager to present Nigerian relay teams at the last two legs of the National Invitational Relay Series.

This is coming at the heels of the painful loss of the men’s 4x100m quartet at the last African Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. They dropped the baton and this has been described to lack of team practice.

AFN Technical Director, Sunday Bada said that the National Relay Series offered an excellent opportunity for the team to rehearse for the Olympics.

“We would have loved them to run here in Calabar. But because Uche Isaac and Olusoji Fasuba are in Qatar, that is why we cannot have the team to run.

“Others were here and they did creditably well for their receptive teams. What we are looking at is that by next week, when the athletes are called to camp, we have the teams together and begin to prepare them,” Bada said.

He added that the team will be put through a thorough practice as it was basically lack of teamwork that causes faulty exchange of baton.

“The only problem we have is that our team has not been able to practice together. This is one thing we are going to be doing in camp,” said the former 400m African champion and 4x400m silver medalist at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.

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