Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, on Sunday, said Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test will be introduced in subsequent editions of the Nestle Milo National Youth Games (NYG).
Abdullahi told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the test would be integrated into the Sports Medicine Centre of the National Sports Commission (NSC) to check age cheats.
The minister was reacting to the high number of disqualified athletes for the maiden edition of the NYG.
NAN reports that more than 600 athletes were screened out of the games, which was mainly for athletes between the ages of 13 and 17 years in secondary schools.
He said “most likely, the MRI test will be used in subsequent editions because we have one testing centre each in Port Harcourt and Calabar.
“But as we set up the High Performance Centre and the Sports Medicine Centre, all these things will be integrated.
“So, subsequently, we can take advantage of that, but it is very expensive doing it on commercial basis.
“The last MRI test the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) conducted on national U-17 players cost a lot of money, so if we have like 4,000 athletes, there is no way we can fund that kind of test.
“But once we have these machines installed, it will be easy to be done in-house.’’
The sports minister added that though MRI test was not 100 per cent perfect, it remained the best method of checking age cheats, aside other methods devised by the NSC.
Abdullahi, who is also the NSC Chairman said “what the MRI does is to scan the bone marrow density to be able to gauge the level of degeneration because all these things are correlated with age.
“So, even though it is not 100 per cent perfect, it still remains the best method because like any other thing done by human beings, the present screening we are doing will not be perfect.
“But if we are able to get 70 per cent or 80 per cent accuracy, it will be better because the criteria we are using is that if you are truly under-17, you should be in school.
“And if you are in school, it means you didn’t just start taking part in sports yesterday, you should have been doing that long before you are 17 years old.
“And that is why we involved the Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), because they organise school sports annually and they know the students that have been participating in competitions.
“So if you have not participated in under-13, under-15 and you suddenly show up that you are under-17, and there is no record of your previous participation, then it is obvious that you are a suspect.’’
The minister, however, noted that the NSC would go by what the screening committee arrived at after the screening exercise even if the number of participating states would be reduced.
He said “we have agreed with the directors of sports in the states and if at the end of the screening, we have only two states, we will still do the competition, rather than allow overage athletes.
“I learnt that some states will not participate in some events because most of the team members are overage and I am glad that the screening committee did not hesitate to send them away.
“And I don’t know why people are doing this because no financial reward is attached to the games and that is why we said there won’t be any medal for the winners.
“But human beings will still be human beings and old habits die very hard, and regardless of what you do, some will still want to cheat with the age.
“But it is our responsibility to ensure that they don’t get away with it.’’
NAN reports that the games, which would involve 31 participating states would hold from Dec. 6 to Dec. 15 at the Packages A and B of the National Stadium, Abuja.
Fourteen sports, including football, boxing, taekwondo, handball, volleyball, badminton, tennis, table tennis, para-powerlifting, squash, basketball, wrestling, weightlifting and athletics will be competed for at the games.
