By Goodluck Ikiebe.
The Integrity unit of World Athletics has cleared 12 Nigerian athletes as eligible to participate fully at the Tokyo Olympics.
These athletes are:Blessing Okagbare, Ese Brume, Tobi Amusan, Divine Oduduru, Nwokocha Grace, Patience Okon George, Enoch Adegoke, Imaobong Nse Uko, Itsekiri Usheoritee, Enekwechi
Chuckwuebuka, Emmanuel Ojeli and Samson Nathaniel.
Reigning Nigerian sprint queen and 100/200m record holder, Blessing Okagbare, tops the list of 12 athletes the Athletics Integrity Unit has cleared to compete in the athletics event of the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics which begins on Friday.
Okagbare, who is making her fourth appearance at the games will be competing in the women’s 100m heat on Friday.
Also cleared to contest are sprint hurdler, Tobiloba Amusan, who is ranked number four in the 100m hurdles; long jumper Ese Brume, who tops the world list in her event coming to the games and Grace Nwokocha, the home-based sensation, who clocked 11.09 seconds in March at the MOC Grand Prix in Lagos to seal her qualification for the Tokyo Games.
Others are the trio of Divine Oduduru, Enoch Adegoke and Ushoritse Itshekiri, who will be competing in the men’s 100m, while Oduduru will also race in the 200m, an event he holds the national record of 19.73 seconds, which he set two years ago in Austin, Texas, in the USA, to win the NCAA gold.
Shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, who made it to the event’s final at the World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar in 2019, is also cleared to compete.
The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Imaobong Nse Uko, Patience Okon-George, Nataniel Samson and Ifeanyi Ojeli are also cleared to compete and will be in action on Friday in the first semifinal heat.
Prince Adeniyi Adisa Beyioku, Secretary General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria says the athletes are in good spirits as they are determined to return Nigeria to the podium for the first time since 2008 when Okagbare and the women’s 4x100m won Nigeria’s last medals in track and field.
Beyioku is happy the 12 athletes have been cleared to compete and assured that the federation will continue to be the goose that lays Team Nigeria’s golden eggs at the Olympics.
Athletics accounts for 13 of the 25 medals won by the country at the games and two of the three gold medals.
In another development, the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development regrets the unfortunate development of 10 Nigerian Track and Field athletes not meeting the testing conditions of the Athletics Integrity Unit.
A statement by Director Press, Mohammed Manga, however, said that other 12 top Track and Field athletes have been cleared to complete in the Games.
All necessary efforts were made to bring the athletes to date with compliance to the WADA regulations by the Ministry.
The 10 athletes are principally alternate and foreign students athletes, whose tests did not meet with WADA sample collection and analysis standards.
The statement explained that the situation is being managed by the Ministry and the AFN which have requested all athletes in the Games Village to remain focussed to doing our motherland proud.
“It’s worthy to note that the 10 athletes did not test positive for any banned substance, but rather did not meet up with the last of the 3 out-of-competition tests due to the aforementioned reason”, it clarified.
The Ministry also commends the decision of the AFN to appoint Prof. Ken Anugweje as Head of it’s Medical and Anti doping Commission.
