The 11-man Team Nigeria to the maiden 2019 Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) World Beach Games in Doha, Qatar on Thursday returned to the country with beautiful experiences of the Games.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the team touched down at the Murtala Muhammed Airport aboard Qatar Airways
Team Nigeria participated in two events — Wrestling and Beach Volleyball — out of the 14 sports on stage.
Team Nigeria got a gold and silver medals in wrestling 70+ and 50kg and came 5th in the Beach Volleyball.
On its experience, the gold-winning coach, John Iwerina, told NAN that it was a beautiful experience for the Team as a first timer.
“It was a beautiful experience for us as a team. This is our first experience in the Games. The technical crew and the players gave their best because we believe in ourselves.
“Putting in everything to the Games paid off as we are able to get medals in the event we participated in, having gold and silver medals is a plus for us.
“We would have got two gold if not for a little mistake by the silver medalist. This is a World Championships with experienced athletes, so, we are far better in performance.
“On the strength of this, we will be preparing well for the forthcoming Olympics to finish off where we started from,” he said.
The gold medalist, Blessing Onyebuchi said that participating on the world stage had given her a hint of oppositions to expect during the Olympics.
“The beach game is a different game entirely, but we were able to perform well. The team was determined to be successful from the onset and we did it.
“We also had tough challenges, but we thank God we are able to come out with good results,” she said.
A beach volleyball player, Abigail Abba, said that participating in the Doha challenge was a beautiful experience, adding that it could have been better if the team had prepared well.
“The tournament in Doha was good for us because we were exposed to another level of the game. The sand we practice with in Nigeria is different from the one we used in Doha.
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“In all, what I noticed is that we could have performed better if we had adequate preparations before the Game,” she said.