Introduce Long Jump In Schools Curriculum, Says Yusuf Ali,

Nigeria's retired long jumper, Yusuf Ali, has identified absence of the sport, a field event, in athletics, as one of the major factors responsible for the decline of long jump in Nigeria.

Ali, who attended four consecutive Olympic Games between 1989 and 1992, said the Federal Ministry of Education and States Ministry of Education, should endeavor to inculcate long jump in the schools curriculum in order to regenerate the standard of long jump in Nigeria.

The former Africa Champion, said there was a need to encourage primary and secondary schools pupils to delve into sporting activities at early age in order to discover world class athletes, stressing that most of the nation's athletes came in contact with sports at age fifteen which is absorbed.

On Marathon, Ali, who praised the organisers of long distance races in the country, said forty- eight road races had been organised in the last seven years, adding that it was thirty- one years ago, the nation, had staged a marathon, where Abass Mohammed ran two hours, fifteen minutes.