Nigerian president sets 8-gold medal target for Olympic team

    LAGOS, May 6 (Xinhua) -- Nigerian president Umaru Musa Yar'Aduahas set 8 gold medals for the Olympic team to win in the 2008 Olympics, as learnt from the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) Congress held in Minna, capital city of Nigeria's northeastern Niger State, over the weekend.

    Yar'Adua disclosed this as a salient item in a communique reached towards a fruitful participation at the Games.

    Tony Nezianya, spokesman for the NOC'S told Xinhua in an e-mail that the president said Nigeria had enough financial and human resources to achieve a laudable feat in China.

    He charged the concerned bodies to explore other sports where Nigeria can enjoy comparative advantages order than athletics, boxing and weightlifting.

    Nigeria is hoping to present a contingent of some of the best athletes on the continent in Beijing, as accentuated by their performances at the recently concluded 16th African Athletics Championship in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    Team Nigeria finished second in the overall medals table behind the Republic of South Africa which sent the largest contingent to the championship.

    World Indoor Athletics 60m champion, Olusoji Fasuba clinched the men's 100m gold medal, while Damola Osayemi achieved the same feat in the female category. Nigeria also clinched the women's 4x100m relay gold medal.