Nigeria’s campaign has been rocked by its latest controversy as sprint medal hopeful, Favour Ofili, has had her dream of winning a medal in the 100 Metres Women’s event dashed.
The Louisiana State University product stated on her Instagram page that the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) and Athletics Federation of Nigeria had failed to register her name for the 100 Metre competition despite the 21 year old qualifying to compete in the event.
In her post on the social media platform, Ofili who won a gold a silver and gold medal in the Women’s 4X400 Relay and 400 Metres event at the 2019 African Games in Morocco, stated that this wasn’t the first time that such an incident had happened to her.
She recalled missing out on competing at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, Japan because the Nigerian authorities failed to release funds to Nigerian athletes based in the USA to be tested to be eligible to compete in the Games.
This led to 14 athletes including Ofili missing out competing at the Tokyo Games that was held in the shadows of the COVID- 19 Pandemic.
According to the Associated Press, Nigeria’s Women’s Basketball Team didn’t participate in the opening ceremony boat ride after a Nigerian official turned them away because there were too many people on board.
Remaining members of Nigeria’s contingent at the 2024 Olympics proceeded to share a boat with Niger and Norway’s contingents for the opening ceremony.
Ofili will compete in the Women’s 200 Metres but lamented her ordeal in the post below.
If those responsible are NOT held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organization can EVER be trusted in the future!
Next one is the 200meters, 🤷🏾♀️🤷🏾♀️
I HOPE IM ENTERED.— Favour Ofili (@FavOfili) July 30, 2024
