NEGLIENCE TAKES CENTER STAGE AS 10 NIGERIAN ATHLETES ARE BANNED FROM PARTICIPATION IN THE 2020 TOKYO OLYMPICS

Without a day goes by in Nigeria that the nation won't make headlines, Thursday 30th of July, it was announced that 10 of  Nigeria athletes are not going to be participating in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, a devastating news for the excited participants that were waiting to not only make the nation proud but also show the world of their talent. One of the biggest sport in the world, the Olympics is one of the 3 major tournament a track field athlete wishes to be, the stage a where athletes like Usian Bolts speed broke barriers, shattered records like the 'yellow flash' bringing disbelief to spectators. Their own dream now dashed by negligence of the same nation they were going to make proud, pained, disgusted athletes have voiced out their concerns regarding the situation. Due to complacency the athletes have to deal with not knowing their fate, their curiosity grows deeper, their dreams that looked set to come through has been put in the mud this prompted the athletes to go to the street of Japan and voice out their disbelief, another disgrace adding salt to an open fresh wound to a struggling nation.

Athletes protesting 

With developments like this, Nigerian athletes or sportsperson around the world will be rethinking their choice of representing the nation, a decision which could damage the country's reputation in not only athletics, but other sport like tennis, badminton, basketball especially football and the fifa rankings, this is not the first case that have been gathered against the federation, the basketball team were not funded enough by the federation, donations had to be made through fans passionate enough about the sport, incidents like this can result in mental instability in terms of teams spirit, the teams passion to play, even motivation hence the D'tigers disappointing performance despite a blistering start before the major tournament with wins over USA (ranked 1st in the world) and Argentina (ranked 4th in the world)

 There were also rumors that the Nigerian team collected the phones that were donated to the team, this rumor was debunked by female shotput thrower Chioma Onyekwere, indicating that they all got their phones.

Female shotput thrower Chioma Onyekwere clearing the air 

 The little hope we have for a medal lies on at most 12 athletes, here are their names; Blessing, Okagbare, Tobi Amusan Enoch Adegoke,Ese Brume, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Patience Okon- George, Usheoritse Itsekiri, Samson Nathaniel, Grace Nwokocha, Divine Oduduru, Emmanuel Ojeli, and Nse Uko. 

 Nigeria have the highest number of athletes sent packing (10) their names are: Knowledge Omovih, Ruth Usoro, Favor Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Glory Patrick, Yinka Ajayi, Tima Godbless, Chidi Okezie, Chima Onyekwere and Annette Echikunwoke. 

 A really tough moment for our future champions, what matters now for them is how they rise from this. A bitter experience indeed, one they will never forget, put your head up is just the start of something huge, that should be their mentality now.

Nigeria aren't the only affected African nation, the remaining affected nations are; Ethiopia, Kenya and Morocco.

Published by,

Olawuni Jeremiah