Athletics / News / Olympics / Sports

Minister sets up panel to probe disqualification of 10 Nigerian athletes in Tokyo

Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, has set up a panel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disqualification of 10 Nigerian athletes at the just concluded Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Team Nigeria finished in the 74th position on the overall table and sixth best in Africa with a silver and a bronze medal at the end of the Games. The country’s participation was nearly marred by controversies arising from disqualification of athletes over non-compliance with anti-doing rules and the provisional suspension placed on Nigeria’s top sprinter, Blessing Okagbare.

“I have ordered a full investigation that will not only uncover what happened, but will also recommend a process where such lapses can never occur in the future and initiate leveraging compliance monitoring technology to guardrail this,” Dare stated yesterday in a press release made available to The Guardian. He continues: “First is the mishap resulting in 10 Team Nigeria athletes being ruled ineligible to compete for missing their mandatory Out of Competition Test (OTC). When notice of this ruling got to me, I immediately mobilized my team and the AFN leadership to see how the situation could be salvaged. We mounted a vigorous appeal process with Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) and had the team members complete the tests. However, timing became the critical issue. Despite our energetic appeal, the deciding committee made its announcement, which gave no latitude to our team members for what was only an inadvertent lapse.

Dare accepted “some institutional responsibility for this lapse,” adding, however, “I also had to depend and expect that each person, in the long and often technical chain, will perform their role expeditiously, and with precision. Unfortunately, somewhere along the line someone failed in their responsibility and as minister, I bear the responsibility and brunt of criticism. But that is not enough. I must move to ensure that Nigeria never experiences another such moment.

“I have personally apologized to the affected athletes. Here and now, I personally apologize to all Nigerians for this ineligibility episode. The AFN has also taken responsibility and apologized to the …

Athletics / Olympics / Sports

Okagbare, Nwokocha advance to 100m semi-finals

For the first time since 2012, two Nigerian athletes will be running in the semifinals of the women’s 100m after Blessing Okagbare and Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha qualified from their respective heats Friday in Tokyo, Japan.

Nwokocha had to run a new personal best of 11.00 seconds to secure her qualification to the semis in what is her debut Olympic Games.

The 20-year-old has also moved into fifth in the Nigeria all-time list behind Okagbare (10.79), Glory Alozie (10.90), Mary Onyali (10.97), and Damola Osayomi (10.99).

The Nigerian-based athlete, who ran 11.09s personal best at the time, back in March, to secure her qualification for the Olympics at the MOC Grand Prix in Lagos, will, however, need to make further history by breaking the 11-second barrier to stand a chance of joining Onyali and Okagbare as debutants who ran to the final of the 100m event.

She has been drawn to run from lane nine in the third semifinal heat with the fastest woman alive, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica, Daryl Neita of Great Britain, Teahna Daniels of the USA and fellow African, Muriel Ahoure, of the Ivory Coast.

While Nwokocha qualified for her first semifinal, Okagbare will be running in her third since she made her debut in the event at the 2012 Olympics in London.

The 32-year-old ran 11.05 seconds to win her first-round heat.

She has been drawn in the first semifinal heat alongside two heavyweights of the event, defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah of Jamaica, who ran 10.82s to win her first-round heat, and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, the 200m world champion two years ago in Doha, Qatar, who ran 11.07s to come second in her first-round heat.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics long jump silver medalist will be in action at exactly 11.15 am Nigerian time on Saturday.…

Athletics / Sports

Okagbare runs world lead 10.63 seconds at national trials in Lagos

Team Nigeria’s preparation for the Tokyo Olympics Games recorded a positive result yesterday, as U.S.-based sprinter, Blessing Okagbare, ran 10.63 seconds, the fastest time by any woman in the world this year. It was aided by wind 2.7.

 

 

Unofficially, Okagbare’s time was recorded as 10.62 seconds.

She won the 100m event of the National Trials at the Yaba College of Technology ahead of Rosemary Chukwuma of Team Delta, who posted a time of 11.07 seconds. Another Delta athlete, Grace Nwokocha, ran 11.11 seconds to place third.

Earlier this year, Okagbare ran 10.90 seconds to finish second behind her Jamaican rival, Shelly-Ann Praser-Pryce, who ran 10.60 seconds. Some weeks later, the Jamaican ran 10.63 seconds at Kingston National stadium.

On sighting the record time of 10.62 seconds at the end of the race yesterday, Okagbare fell flat on the track, rolled several times in celebration.…