Coach Kayode Yaya is the tactical brain behind the global leap of Ese Brume of Nigeria. In an interview with sportsafricana.com in Birmingham, United Kingdom the athletics tactician canvasses more support from the country’s government, individuals and corporate organisations for athletics so that Nigeria can produce more world-class athletes like Brume.
Immediately Ese Brume jumped 7.00m to set a new Commonwealth Games record in Birmingham, she ran to celebrate with Coach Kayode Yaya. Brume and Yaya acknowledged God for the feat in public by kneeling and raising their eyes and arms in thanks to the heavens.
An elated Yaya could not hide his excitement over Brume’s feat in Birmingham: “I feel great. It tells you that all the efforts paid off at the end of the day. It is just like a woman who is pregnant, and she delivers at the end of the day. How do you feel? You know all the work, stress, distress paid off at the end of the day. So, I feel really good and happy, I feel much more blessed to have the opportunity to impact people’s lives and it turned out to be great people. You don’t know that feeling. I feel blessed and I feel great, so I give thanks to God.”
What formula does one needs to produce a world class athlete? Coach Yaya said: “First of all, you must know what a world-class athlete means, and you must understand the standard at which a world-class athlete operates. It takes a lot. It takes commitment, resources. It takes a lot of time and energy as well as precision. These things put together with the commitment of the athlete brings tremendous results.”
However, Yaya acknowledged the challenges: “One of the biggest challenges faced is the comprehension of the athlete. One thing is to know what to do, and the second thing is for the athlete to comprehend what to do. Another thing again is in the area of facilities. We are limited in our part of the world. Most of the times, you see us train outside the country so as to gain access to these facilities that are modern and can be of tremendous benefits. Facilities and other resources in terms of gym, plyometrics, nutritionists, like doctors, trainers and other kinds of rehabilitation that are up to date.”
According to Yaya, world-class athletes sustain their performance in future events through consistent resources. His words: “Retaining performance is based on consistency of what is available to keep the performance going in the future. Once resources are there, the facilities are there, then why not? It is just like a recycling plan. You have more and more of the athletes coming out and more of them who are already out to be sustained by this availability of facilities and support system.”