The hope of Nigerian athletes participating at the World Athletics Relays in Poland may have been dashed, following their inability to secure visa from the Polish embassy yesterday.
The World Athletics Relays will begin on May 1 and end the following day at the Silesian Stadium in Chorzow, Poland.
Team Nigeria had lined up 24 athletes (12 males and 12 females) for the event in Poland with the hope of picking qualification tickets for the Tokyo Olympics. The country entered five relay teams: 4x100m (men and women), 4x400m (men and women) and the Mixed 4 x400m in Poland.
Journalist gathered on Thursday that the Nigerian team was yet to secure Polish visas with a day left before the event.
The World Relays serves as qualifiers for the relay events of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for teams that are yet to qualify.
Nigeria has not qualified for any relay event at the 2020 Olympics.
According to a source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the athletes have been stranded in Abuja after submitting their passports for visas at the American embassy.
“They (sports ministry) took the athletes to the US embassy and thought they would get their passports back same day but they couldn’t.
“The passports are not out after four days and the athletes are stranded in their hotel. Nobody knows what is happening, there is confusion everywhere,” the source said.
While different reasons are being adduced by the ‘rival boards’ of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), the common conclusion is that Nigerian athletes will not be exchanging batons in Poland because of infighting between officials.
In a press statement issued on Thursday, Ibrahim Gusau whose leadership of the AFN is being tagged ‘illegitimate’ by a rival faction led by Olamide George, blamed sports ministry officials for Nigeria’s impending miss of the global showpiece.
According to the statement by Gusau, the Ministry of Youth and Sports opted to take the athletes to a training tour in the United States for the same relays they are yet to qualify for, instead of the pre-Olympic Games qualification in Poland.
This development means the initial joy that greeted Nigeria’s ability to beat the deadline for registration of athletes for the important competition which also doubles as an Olympic qualifier has now been eroded.
“The information at our disposal is that athletes who were supposed to represent Nigeria at the World Athletics Relays in Silesia, Poland, were taken to the USA Embassy to obtain visas for a training tour of an event they were yet to qualify for.
“The scheduled relays in Poland were meant to enable Nigeria to secure qualification for the Olympic Games in Tokyo but to our disbelief, the athletes’ passports were diverted to the USA Embassy to secure visas for a training camp for an event they are yet to qualify for. How can a qualification competition in Poland which was our best bet be ignored for a training camp in the USA?” Gasau said.
However, Joshua Akanji, Senior Adviser on Media to the Sports Minister, explained that it was following the refusal of the Polish Embassy in Nigeria to issue entry visas to Nigeria’s contingent to the World Relays that the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) moved to ensure Nigeria qualifies for the five relay events at the Tokyo Olympics.
“They told us that Poland has its rules and regulation and that visa can only be issued to those who meet the deadline of two weeks.
And as it stands, Team Nigeria is out of the World Relays in Poland. It is so sad because we wanted to use the event to qualify our athletes for Tokyo Olympics relay events. But we still have one more chance of qualifying our relay team for the Olympics, if we are able to attend the event we have entered in the United States of America. It will hold on May 9,” the official said