BEVERLY HILLS, May 25, (THEWILL) – In the continued attempts to get Nigerian athletes to secure places in qualifying events ahead of the imminent Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, there have been mixed outcomes that will determine the country’s track and field fortunes when the Games begin.
After the unfortunate miss of the Poland relays due to visa issues, athletes from the country have taken part in two events that have held in Texas on the three weeks that they have been on tour in the United States. Another event is billed for Tuesday with Team Nigeria expected to compete with other nations for tickets to the Olympics.
Besides these qualification races, athletes from Nigeria who were originally scheduled to participate in another Relay on Saturday, May 29, in Florida, will have to wait for longer after organisers moved the event to next month before the Olympics qualification deadline.
However, not all athletes can share in this opportunity to race to Tokyo. Some, like top sprinter, Seye Ogunlewe, and the revelation at Edo 2020 National Sports Festival, Akintola Alaba, may have given up on the plan to join Team Nigeria’s tour of the U.S. ahead of the Tokyo Olympics following their failure to secure a visa to the tour.
This is beside the optimism expressed by the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Olamide George, who led Team Nigeria to the U.S. tour. He had insisted that those awaiting their visas were bound to join Team Nigeria at the Texas events but as has become increasingly obvious so late in the events, it is not realistically possible at this point.
Elsewhere, at the 2021 Diamond League in Gateshead, England, another Nigerian, who remains a medal hopeful at the Tokyo Games, Blessing Okagbare, finished fifth in the 100m on Sunday with a time of 11.57 seconds, in strong 3.1 m/s headwinds.
That was 0.22 seconds behind British 100m athlete, Dina Asher-Smith, who won the race ahead of American sensation, Sha’Carri Richardson, who clocked 11.44, while Cote d’Ivoire’s Marie-Josee Ta Lou finished third in 11.48 seconds in front of world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce with 11.51 seconds in fourth.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
