Favour Ofili of Nigeria has advanced to the women’s 200-meter semifinals in the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Ofili won the event’s heat six with a commanding time of 22.24 seconds, a season’s best.
She qualified for the semi-finals ahead of Gina Bass-Bittaye of the Gambia and Dina Asher-Smith of Great Britain.
Due to administrative errors on the part of the Nigerian Olympic Committee and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, the 21-year-old Ofili was not allowed to compete in the 100-meter sprint at the current Olympics in Paris.
Her post read, “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 metres at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what?”
However, Sports Minister John Owan Enohhe in reaction said he would probe the exclusion of Nigerian athlete, Favour Ofili, from the 100m Women’s event
Enohhe in a later statement revealed that other countries share similar circumstances to that of Ofili’s.
“I have been duly informed that some other countries have similar issues, and these aforementioned bodies do not want to open a floodgate that would become difficult to manage. Howbeit, I am not concerned about other countries. My interest is with my own country Nigeria and who is responsible for the nonlisting of Favor Ofili.”, he said.
“Furthermore, I have been briefed that World Athletics submitted, that when the final list was published in July by it, AFN should have called its attention to the omission of Favor Ofili’s name. This still doesn’t address the issue. At what point did her name drop out of the 100m race? Who’s responsible for this? What’s the motivation behind this? What’s the trail of communication from AFN to NOC and to IOC and/or World Athletics?
A very big congratulations to you! Wishing you the very best in your next game. More Wins!
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Rose Ajieh
