The 100m race got off to a start today, sadly without Favor Ofili. Senator John Enoh Nigeria minister of sports said he has been on the matter till the early hours of yesterday, with the hope of giving Nigerians something to be happy about.
From the moment he stated his position on this, officials of the NOC haven’t slept, they have been on their toes.
The NOC President Engr Habu Gumel and his team kept vigil, traversing between the Director of Competition, the Technical Committee and the World Athletics. The minister said he was duly informed that some other countries have similar issues, and these aforementioned bodies do not want to open a floodgate that would become difficult to manage.
The minister said he is not concerned about other countries. His interest is with his own country Nigeria and who is responsible for the non-listing of Favor Ofili. Furthermore, the minister said he wss briefed that World Athletics submitted, that when the final list was published in July by it, AFN should have called its attention to the omission of Favor Ofili’s name. This still doesn’t address the issue he said.
At what point did her name drop out of the 100m race? Who’s responsible for this?
What’s the motivation behind this?
What’s the trail of communication from AFN to NOC and to IOC and/or World Athletics?
All these are questions that must be answered immediately after the Olympics. For now, the minister has appeaed to Favor Ofili to not to allow this to distract her concentration in the remaining races for which she has been listed( As he 3in touch with her on this).
And for the rest of Team Nigeria, particularly the Athletics team, let them stay motivated to win.