The Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Olympic Committee are still under fire from Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili for not registering her for the women’s 100-meter event at the ongoing Paris Olympics, according to PUNCH Sports Extra.
After discovering that she was not included in the heats on Friday, the 21-year-old set off the alarm on Tuesday night and has since voiced her sorrow over the occurrence.
AFN and NOC have disassociated themselves from any responsibility, but the athlete anticipates that heads will roll despite Sports Minister John Enoh claiming he has started an investigation into the matter. On Friday, hopes for a belated solution were dashed.
“Sadly, nothing has been done. I’m yet to see or hear anyone being punished for what the NOC and AFN did to me. Athletes shouldn’t be getting punished for things out of their control,” Ofili posted on X on Friday after missing the heats.
“Who assigned federations and/or Olympic committees to enter athletes into the Olympic Games? Is it World Athletics? If so, should they not hold them accountable when they fail to do their job by not entering athletes in events they qualify and want to compete in?
“NOC and AFN, this is not the first time you guys are doing this, so don’t think this is over because it is not.”
Ofili qualified for the women’s 100m during the AFN National Trials, which were held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, in June. She had a new personal best of 11.06s to secure her first national title as well.
In April, she hit the Olympics 200m mark at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic with a time of 22.33s.
She is expected to line up in the 200m heats on Sunday and then the women’s 4x100m relay next Thursday—the two events she was registered for.
