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Favour Odili out of the women’s Olympic 100m race
Nigeria’s hopes of winning a medal in the women’s 100m at the Olympics may have been dashed as Favour Odili is out of the race despite her qualification.
This is because the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) failed to register her for the event.
Ofili qualified for the women’s 100m during the AFN National Trials in June.
Sharing her reaction in an Instagram post, Ofili expressed her displeasure at being omitted especially as she was disqualified at the Tokyo Olympics which felt like fate was repeating itself. She also accused the AFN and NOC of taking the opportunity from her.
According to the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), the disqualification resulted from failing to comply with the out-of-competition testing (OCT) requirement.
She wrote: It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 meters at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter my name.
I have worked for 4 years to earn this opportunity. For what….to not be entered and compete at the Olympic Games because the responsible organization failed to enter me? Please remember, in the last Olympic Games I was not able to compete because AFN, NADC, and NOC failed to release funds for athletes in the USA to be tested, which made 14 Nigerian athletes that qualified to not compete. Now THIS……..If those responsible are NOT held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organization can EVER be trusted in the future!
In their response, the AFN revealed that Ofili was registered for the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.
Ofili who also qualified for the 200 meters is hopeful that she would participate at the event.
