The World Athletics Championships, Japan 2025, was concluded on Sunday, 21st September. It was a competition that certainly lived up to its billing with new records set, rivalries renewed, stars unveiled and some bowing out.
Team Nigeria didn’t go back home empty-handed though. The ever reliable and trustworthy Oluwatobilola “Tobi” Amusan won for herself and country, a silver medal in the women’s 100 metres hurdles – a feat that sent her and the country into raptures. But does it in any way absolve the country’s poor build up and preparations for this competition?
Indeed, the most popular of the complaints came from none other than Tobi Amusan herself. The athlete went on social media (Snapchat to be precise) to record her displeasure of the treatment of the athletes. On her post, she displayed the competition gear (and it was only 2 sets) and lamented the quality. She also noted the glaring absence of footwear which meant that the athletes would have to train and compete with their personal ones.
The AFN went on record to defend themselves saying that the items came in batches and the rest of the kit would arrive the following day. After the race, Tobi refused to be drawn into more conversation about the kit issue.
That action or inaction, rather, underlines all that had been happening in Nigeria’s Athletics.
Should we start with the number of athletes who did represent the country? Conspicuous in her absence was Favour Ofili, who had run the 10th fastest time in the world this year, before the World Athletics Championships. She had come out to announce that she was switching allegiance to Turkey, citing the poor behaviour of the AFN and the IOC with regards to her career. She pointed out that the biggest disappointment was how the Olympics in both Tokyo and Paris was handled (infractions due to not enough out of competition testing and then failing to register her in her preferred races).
Then we have the athletes who met the entry mark for qualification and were still not selected to represent the country. Tima Godbless had the time of 10.91s in the 100m. In the 200 metres, Kelly Ofudiama met the entry requirements with a time of 22.43s but was also left out. Tima Godbless also qualified in a time of 22.55s in same race. Ella Onojuvwevo also qualified for the 400m.
These are just a few examples of athletes who qualified but did not make the competition. The reasons touted for this was that the AFN wanted to take only athletes who were amongst the top 10 in their sport. However, close examination shows that the likes of Rosemary Chukwu wasn’t anywhere near the Top 10 in the world rankings but made it to the Championship.
One thing was certainly clear and glaring. All the athletes that could not attend the National Trials did not go to the World Athletics Championships, whether they met the entry requirements, or not!
Not having any representation at the relays was also as a result of a lack of effort by the AFN. There were events that had the country entered athletes, they could have met the qualification requirements. Even the final event in Bahamas, the country did not participate. Also, during the National Trials where other countries were invited to participate in the relays, Nigeria could not field their best because these athletes were protesting. They had not been paid their bonuses and other benefits.
Missing the relay, particularly, rankles because we watched Botswana win the 4X400m relay and Ghana came 4th in the 4X100m relays.
After the debacle at the Paris Olympics, it was expected that there would be some sort of redemption in the planning and execution of the country’s participation in further events and tournaments. However, it is not clear what Nigeria’s goal was in Tokyo 2025. If it was to win medals, they did not have enough athletes to do so. It certainly could not have been to gain competition experience because more athletes (who qualified, by the way), were left at home compared to those who participated.
So what was Team Nigeria’s expectations, going to the World Athletics Championship, Tokyo 2025?
