Nigerian team optimistic at Beijing Olympics

The Nigerian athletics team to the 2008 Beijing Olympics will perform creditably at the games, in spite of doubts by sports analysts back home over the team’s preparations, head coach Innocent Egbunike said here Saturday Egbunike, himself an Olympian having won a bronze medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, assured that the athletes would be mentally and spiritually prepared ahead athletic event. Despite joining the team’s training camp in Seoul, South Korea, late, the head coach said he and his crew would make up for lost grounds. “I could not join the team early because of difficulty in obtaining the Chinese visa from my U.S. base,” said Egbunike, now a Church Minister.