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By Olayinka Elebute
Cycling Federation of Nigeria (CFN) President Giandomenico Massari, has called on the private sector and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to invest in Cycling to boost its development in Nigeria.
The president while speaking with newsmen in Abuja, said that the major challenge of the Federation was lack of sponsorship, which has been affecting the development of the cycling in Nigeria.
We have been organizing competition without the support of any private organisations.
He said that the Federation was set to host the Africa Track Cycling without any support or help from any cooperate bodies.
“The Championship will kick off on Thursday, this is the second time we are hosting a Continental Championship of this type in Nigeria without any support from private or NGOs .
“To host a Continental Championship of this type we need to have various organisations that will surround us with different support, to make the event colourful and interesting to participants and spectators.
“The Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) and Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) decided to give us the hosting right because of the velodrome facilities that we (Nigeria) have is the only one in West Africa region,” he said.
He said a total 35 cyclists would represent Nigeria in 11 events during the Championship, 21 male and 14 female in both Junior and Elite category, which they are all set to make the country proud.
“Our cyclist have been in the camp for more than four months, they had rigorous training and they are ready for the championship,” he said.
Speaking further, In the female category we are in good position in the world not just on the continent .
“ And we want to see what we can do in this championship and we are on our way to measure our level of our performance,” he said.
A total of 15 countries have arrived to participate in the championship.
The country included are :
Niger Republic, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt,Tunisia, Burundi,South Africa,Sudan, Cote D’Ivoire,Benin,Togo, Ghana and Nigeria (Host)
In 2019 Nigeria hosted the championship and in which Nigeria contingents was made up of 21 cyclists of both female and male categories , garnered a total of 51 medals made up 21 gold, 18 silver and 12 bronze medals to emerge champions.
They are followed by Egypt who came second winning eight gold, seven silver and seven bronze medals.Another North Africa side, Morocco came third with four gold and three silver medals.
Burkina took fourth position with three silver, five bronze whereas Burundi came fifth with two bronze. Nigeria’s neighbour, Ghana placed sixth with a bronze medal. While Liberia, Ivory Coast and Benin had no medal.
