Still Many Rivers to Cross as All Eyes Turn to Track and Field for Nigeria’s Medal Hope

With the Super Falcons out of the women’s football event and Nigeria’s basketball team’s hope of progressing hanging in the balance after Thursday’s loss to France, and Anuolwapo Opeyori ouster in the badminton event, Nigerian would be turning to the track and field events which kicked off on Wednesday for any shape of medal, but there are still many rivers to cross, writes Kunle Adewale 

Boxing, track and field have always been the strongest hold of Team Nigeria at any Olympics and it was no surprise when the country’s first medal-bronze, at the world’s biggest sporting fiesta came from a pugilist, in the person of Nojim Maiyegun at the 1964 Olympics. Indeed, Nigeria’s second medal at the Games also came from boxing.

It wasn’t until the 1996 edition in Atlanta that football won gold for Nigeria and a bronze at the Rio edition in 2014.

However, Nigeria’s biggest hope for a medal at the Olympics has always been on the track and Paris 2024 edition will not be different.

Like all other editions of Games before this year’s, poor preparation has always been Nigeria’s bane, but the country’s sports-loving populace would be counting on the grit and determination of athletes such as Tobi Amusan, Efe Brume and Favour Ofili amongst others to wave their magic wands when the chips are down.

However, the country was dealt a great blow after it was discovered that Nigeria’s national champion in the women’s 100-metre sprint, Ofili won’t run the race at the Paris Olympics because her country’s track federation didn’t enter her into the field in time in what can only be described as a monumental clerical error.

Ofili said on social media, ‘It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 meters at this Olympic Games.

‘I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what….to not be entered and compete at the Olympic Games because the responsible organisation (the Nigerian Olympic Committee) failed to enter me.’

The women’s 100 prelims kicked off the start of Olympic track on Wednesday.

Ofili won Nigeria’s national title in June with a time of 11.06 seconds, and her personal-best time of 10.93 would have made her a contender to race in the final in Paris. Though, she is still entered in the 200 metres and the 4×100 relay.

According to the Olympic news service, Ofili missed the Tokyo Games because Nigeria had failed to meet minimum testing requirements for a number of its athletes, as required by track and field’s Athletics Integrity Unit.

She slammed the NOC and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria in a furious message on Instagram, writing: ‘If those responsible are NOT held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organisation can EVER be trusted in the future!’

Ofili is the Nigerian national champion in the 100-metre sprint – but she can’t contest the glamour event in Paris

The 21-year-old did everything right in her quest to battle the fastest women in the world next week – but has been barred from the event due to an unforgivable clerical error.

In a statement, Nigeria’s sports minister, John Enoh, said he had been in contact with officials from the country’s athletics federation and they had assured him that Ofili had been included on registration forms for the 100, 200 and 4×100, and the forms had been passed on to the Nigerian Olympic Committee to submit.

Enoh said he was waiting for an explanation from the head of the NOC as to why she was left out of the 100.

This isn’t the first time Nigerian athletes have run into this problem. At the 2019 world championships, a paperwork mix-up almost disqualified Divine Oduduru and Blessing Okagbare from the meet, and they were allowed to race only after appealing to World Athletics.

Hammer thrower, Annette Echikunwoke ended up missing the Tokyo Olympics because of the same drug-testing issue that cost Ofili.

Indeed, the World Athletics have ruled out the possibility of Nigeria making a podium appearance in the Discuss event. The World Athletics in its preview gave Nigeria’s trio of Ashely Anumba, Obiageli Pamela and Chioma Onyekwere no chance of a medal podium at the Paris showpiece.

While Pamela is ranked 28th in the world, Onyekwere and Anumba are ranked 39th and 44th respectively.

In a chat with THISDAY, former Nigeria Olympics gold and bronze medalist, Enofiok Udo-Obon ahead of this year’s summer Olympics in Paris, he admitted that Nigeria was not prepared for the sports’ biggest showpiece.

“The truth is that we’re not prepared for the Olympics. Preparation is not about how much are we giving the athletes over time but how long have we put the athletes together. Are we trying to prepare? Yes, we are, but it’s probably a little too late. Our preparation should have been over a four-year circle and getting ready in the last two-years. Even, there were lots of controversies over the team list, which shows that we’re not totally ready for it.

“However, we still have a lot of hope to win medals because of some of our established athletes in Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume and the likes, who a getting closer to winning time. We have hope in javelin and discuss women and also one or two relays. We can have hope. But are we prepared, the answer is no. Is it something that we deserve? I really don’t think so.

“At, best we can win three medals.  I don’t know the colour or the shape but not more than three. If we have to be very sincere with ourselves, we have to make our expectations consciously,” he said.

“We have a young team, a good side and anything else we get from the Games is going to be a bonus. We are going to try, we are going to compete, but we should not be putting pressure on them because our preparation and selection process was not very smooth,” Enefiok expressed.

With Nigerian athletes falling like pack of card at the ongoing Olympics, Amusan and Brume, probably remains the country’s only hope for a medal, except the unthinkable happened.