Peace Nwalehia and Thaddeus Okpara have both successfully finalised their application for transfer of allegiance to Bahrain and will henceforth, divert services to their newfound home.
Both athletes participated at the 2018 Commonwealth Games trials in Abuja.
Nwalehia was Nigeria’s former junior champion in the Long Jump, High jump and 400 meters while Okpara was the nation’s High and long jumper.
The former junior champion has always been in the shadow of Yinka Ajayi and Patience Okon since moving to the seniors, while Okpara has been a leading high jumper since 2014. He placed third in the triple jump event at the 2017 AFN/Dynamic Sporting Solutions meet.
Meanwhile, Nigerian-born Bahraini athlete, Ebelechukwu Agbapuonwu now known as Sal Salwa Eid-Naser, won the 400m event at the 2018 Diamond League which took place in Rome, Italy, on Thursday.
Nigeria may continue to lose some of its talented athletes to countries like Qatar and recently, Bahrain because of what the athletes say is poor welfare and training facilities.
Oluwakemi Adekoya and Edidiong Ofonime Odiong both of Nigeria origin represented Bahrain at the 2016 Rio Olympics in Brazil.
