Patrick-Estate Onyedum, the chairman of the Anambra Sports Development Commission, has urged coaches and sports associations in the state to embark on aggressive talent discovery and development.

Onyedum made the call at a meeting between the commission’s management and coaches and secretaries of sports associations in Awka on Friday.

He urged coaches to go to the grassroots, identify raw talents and nurture them for the state and national sports meet.

The chairman warned coaches against fielding over-age athletes for any age-grade competition or face serious sanctions.

Onyedum thanked the staff for the success of the school sports festival, national sports festival, national youth games and other competitions organised in 2023.

He said age cheating remains a no-go area for the state.

“We want to have athletes that fall within the specified age for all age group competitions because we are developing sports. What we are doing is futuristic.

“From school sports to youth games, Anambra wants to take pride as the most age-compliant state. We need as many medals as we can get, but we have to earn them.

“Look at the children we took to the national youth games; almost all came from school sports; they own the future in their various sports because we are monitoring their progress,” he said.

Onyedum tasked the sports association to organise one age group and one open competition as a part of their mandates to grow their sports. He said these competitions would enable them to identify talents that they would represent the state.

The chairman warned that failure to meet the target could deny them slots in the state team.

He promised to support the associations to feature in national championships and urged them to submit their proposals on time.

Also, Olu Sule, consultant to the commission, encouraged the coaches to do their jobs with passion and commitment.

Olu, who described coaching as one of the best jobs, said nothing gives greater joy than coaches seeing their athletes soaring in their sports and mounting the podium.

“As a management, we shall organise refresher programmes for you, including secretaries, to update us with new developments and technical innovations in various games,” he said.

Other speakers at the event were senior directors in the commission.

(NAN)