August 07, (THEWILL) – A 60-athlete strong contingent represented Nigeria at the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo, Japan for their events which began on Friday, July 23 with Esther Tamaraebi Toko representing the country in the Women’s single sculls ended on Friday, August 6 with teenager Adijat Idris competing in the Women’s freestyle 50kg wrestling event.
It was an eventful competition all taken together with some forgettable occasions mixed with some exciting highlights and a set of embarrassing decisions combined with podium finishes for Ese Brume in her long jump event and Blessing Oborududu in her wrestling competition that earned bronze and silver for Team Nigeria.
Promising finishes for Divine Oduduru and Enoch Adegoke in the 100m sprint were extinguished when Oduduru was disqualified for a false start in the qualifiers while Adegoke pulled a muscle in the finals to drop out of contention after a truly sensational run to reach the last race.
The opportunity for Blessing Okagbare, African’s sprint Queen to improve Nigeria’s medal tally and continue to write her winning story also went under in Tokyo when the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of the athletics governing body disqualified her for testing positive for Human Growth Hormone.
10 other track and field athletes, with the potential for medals at the Summer Games also suffered the axe of AIU because they did not meet the minimum testing requirements compulsory for athletes representing Category A countries, a class to which Nigeria had unfortunately fallen into due to the negligence of her athletics governance.
Therefore, on the last day of competition for Team Nigeria, when the promising 19-year-old Idris was completely overwhelmed in the round of 16 match at the Makuhari Messe Hall in Tokyo, by the technical superiority of her opponent, the Ukrainian Oksana Livach, it was but a microcosm of the entire country’s participation in the Olympics.
Idris was summarily outclassed against an opponent that recorded five technical points of two for each advantage of their fight that there was no point going beyond the first period. It brought the curtain down on Team Nigeria’s Games.
High expectations for bringing about a reckoning in the basketball events for both D’Tigers and D’Tigress, based on certain developments that increased the overall quality of both teams such as the recruitment of Nigerian talents from across the globe and the technical involvement of experienced hands, fell flat.
Neither team won a single match as the male and female basketballers were unable to build on the strength of their reputation and the quality that had shown promise in the lead up to the events in Tokyo, especially pre-Olympics exhibition games where D’Tigers ended an unprecedented unbeaten run of the eventual gold-winning Team USA in Las Vegas.
The loss by 19-year-old Idris brought to an end Team Nigeria’s competitive involvement in the Tokyo Olympics which ends on Sunday. The only silver and bronze medals were scant consolation for the huge promise that was on display in July 23 with the Nigerian contingent, waving flags in their resplendent green-white-green attires as they paraded the opening ceremony.
There were not enough moments to cheer the contingent during the Games as a whole. It was a series of disappointments with only a handful of bright spots and a lot to think about how much difference things could have been if 10 more athletes competed, if Okagbare and Oduduru competed, if some who failed to find a means to qualify were included.
Rather than focus on the hypotheticals however, THEWILL believes that if the administrative lapses from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) are curtailed, if punitive measures are taken on those who deserve such measures for some shameful occurrences, and if responsible leadership can take charge at the top, the potentials of Nigeria’s gifted sportsmen and women can be harnessed for better international outcomes.
THEWILL also recommends that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development (FMYSD) take charge of this restructuring while continuing with its beneficial adopt-a-talent initiative for talented and promising athletes.
THEWILL also hopes that the Ministry acts on the knowledge that a massive investment strategy in sports is essential for Nigeria’s pursuit of sports glory, on the continent and beyond. And begin to put in place a contingent plan to bring that into reality as quickly as possible.
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.
