National Athletics coach, Chief Anthony Osheku has declared that he would not be surprised if Nigerian athletes return empty - handed from the 11th World Athletics Championship in Osaka, Japan.

Baring his mind on the nation's haphazard preparations for the tournament, Osheku said it would be unrealistic to expect any magic from the athletes because they are ill- prepared.

"You don't prepare for a World championship like we are doing. All the serious contenders are already in Japan fine - tuning strategies for the event and we still don't know the number of athletes that would be donning our colours."

He asked: "How can you expect the athletes to go and excel in this kind of situation, it doesn't work that way." The retired athlete said the young and up coming athletes will benefit from the exposure but in terms of medals Nigerians should not expect anything from the athletes. Africa's fastest man, Adetokunbo Olusoji Fasuba will be the main attraction for Nigeria in Osaka but with big names like Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay and Francis Obikwelu, pundits are not optimistic that the Nigerian can pull any surprise in Japan.