Mary Onyali, a former Nigerian sprinter and veteran Olympian, has called for investment in school sports to harness young athletes.

She said this during the 2nd edition of Prudential Sports Awards, in Gombe on Saturday.

The theme of the event was: “Celebrating Nigeria Sporting Legends: Honouring their Legacy, Inspiring the Next Generation of Champions.”

Onyali said school sports remained the best tool for recruiting young athletes to represent Nigeria in international competition, recounting how she started her sports career from school.

She decried the poor attention given to school sports in recent times, stressing the need for massive investment in school sporting infrastructure to harness young talent.

The 1996 Olympic 200m bronze medallist urged government at all levels and stakeholders to look inward towards discovering athletes from schools.

“That’s the best avenue for discovering athletes. I was discovered from school and I went for sports festival before leaving the shores of Nigeria for my student-athlete scholarship in the USA.

“This is the only way to get us going and that’s why we are emphasising the need to build the facility and infrastructure for the children to play with.

“If we can build mini stadia to contain football and athletics in all the local government areas of the country, I think we will discover two million Mary Onyali before this era is over,” she said.

Corroboratively, Al-Hassan Yakmut, former director-general, National Sports Commission (NSC), also called for improved budgetary allocation for school sports.

Ms Yakmut said that with good investment in school sports, Nigeria’s future in sports would be brighter and better, adding that there were more talents now than in the past.

Also, Sani Haruna, chairman, Gombe Local Government Council, reaffirmed his commitment to grassroots sports development.

According to Mr Haruna, plans are underway to organise a grassroots competition involving all schools in the area.

He said the winner would compete with the winners from 10 other councils for the overall winner.

The chairman said that his administration was promoting sports development as a tool to foster peaceful coexistence while discouraging youths from committing crimes.

Faruk Yarma, president of Prudential Sports Limited, said his passion for supporting sports development was born out of the need to empower young talents while supporting the retired athletes.

Mr Yarma urged stakeholders to support grassroots talent development towards harnessing Nigeria’s talents for the social and economic development of the country.

The highlight of the event featured the presentation of cheques for the enrolment of 1,000 retired athletes from the state and their families into the health insurance scheme, distribution of different sports equipment to 10 schools, cash support to students and veteran athletes, among others.

 (NAN)