Amos Adamu, Chef De Mission to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, has commended Nigeria's contingent for their efforts at representing the country at the Games and has stated that the country quest for medals at the 2012 Olympics games in London will begin soon, Lagos' local media reported Monday

"I am particularly grateful to the silver and bronze medalists, you are all great. I want to tell you that this is no time to relax as the end of these Games marks the beginning of another," he said.

"We must start working towards London 2012 Games. We must look at mistakes that cost us medals and plug all loopholes; we no doubt made progress over our last outings at the Sydney 2000 and the 2004 Athens Games," he said. "Our performance has shown that there is room for improvement and we can perform well but we need government to improve the funding of sports."

He advised the technical official to develop themselves and let the commission know the areas where it could assist them to develop their talents for the overall good of the country.

"I want to use this medium to appeal to government at all levels to spend a little on sports so as to improve the lives of our youths," he said.

"If all the states and local government spend more on sports, they would have contributed to the empowerment of the youths.

"States must tap into the national sports policy as they are sources of talents that we use at the national level.

"You will all be happy at the end of the day, when your athletes are selected to represent the country at high profile events such as the Olympic Games," he said

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2008)