By Tunde Liadi
Former 400m hurdles athlete, Victor Okorie has stated that he dedicated his recent reappointment as the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Performances Director and Liaison Officer in countries around the world to the athletes and his constituents in the South East.
AFN President, Tonobok Okowa recently rescinded his decision to scrap the post recently and he announced the hard working Okorie who is based in the United States and has a good relationship with Nigeria’s athletes, coaches and the schools they are enrolled for the development of Athletics in Nigeria.
Okorie, a Silver Medalist for Nigeria at the 2003 All African Games in Abuja in the 400m hurdles, had served as AFN Performance Director between 2021 and 2023, but the position was rested alongside others when the AFN reconstituted its committees, earlier this year.
Okowa stated that there is the need for Okorie to continue with his position as Performance Director and Liaison Officer of the AFN considering his achievements between 2021 and 2023.
Okorie worked with the Technical team for Team Nigeria’s qualification at the 2024 World Relays in Bahamas, where the country’s athletes picked four out of five relay tickets to Paris 2024 Olympics Games.
Okorie expressed his delight at the reappointment and stated that he would continue to do his best to ensure that Nigeria gets to maximise the potential of their athletes abroad while also wooing other young athletes with the country’s heritage to come and represent their fatherland.
He told our correspondent: “I am happy to be reappointed. It was the right thing to do because we must continue to explore the potential of our athletes in diaspora who are doing well and have the tendency to give positive image of the country.
“I want to appreciate the athletes because this reappointment is for them and for my people in the South East Athletics board for their tireless efforts to ensure the needful was done. We have important assignments at hand and can’t afford to allow anything to distract us. We are in Olympic Games year and we want to qualify as many as possible to ensure we surpass the achievements of previous years. It is possible.”
