ACLSports.com has gathered authoritatively that Nigeria’s Weightlifters will not compete at the 2017 Commonwealth Championship in Australia.
The team made up of four female lifters; Fidelis Chineye 58kg, Adesanmi Oluwatoyin Victoria (MON) 63Kg, Otunla Bilikis Abiodun 75kg and Usman Maryam +90kg had secured their visas but the trip was cancelled because of lack of funds.
The championships for Junior, Youth and Senior weightlifters began on Sunday September 3rd in Gold Coast, Queensland.
Nigeria missed out of the 2017 African Weightlifting Championships held in Mauritius in July had to depend on wildcard from the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).
In a telephone interview the Technical Representative, Christopher Nwadei said “it’s quite unfortunate the ladies are absent at the Championship which serves as a qualification series for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.”
Nwadei said if the country continues to miss tournaments, the probability of appearing at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is becoming slim.
“In 2016, Nigeria had one representative at the Olympics because we failed to participate in International Championships. I hope this does not happen again because the lifters are in the best form of their lives”, he said.
