Athletics Championship: Ministry Frustrates Nigerian Athletes Participation

The 18th edition of the World Athletics Championship will commence in Oregon, the United States of America on Friday. Unfortunately, Nigeria’s athletes are yet to report to camp even as their participation in the championship remains doubtful following the ministry of Youth and Sports failure to release funds to the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN.
The athletes who have been penciled to take part in the championship were yet to start camping, especially the home-based contingent with their foreign counterparts reported to have been training individually for some weeks now.
This unhealthy situation have left the affected athletes frustrated as they are currently confused and do not know or have information on how they are going to take part in the global event.
Credible sources within the AFN and the sports ministry as well as close to the athletes have disclosed that the athletes have been complaining about their preparations for the games in Oregon and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham later this month.
According to reports, foreign based athletes have been training individually but the home-based contingent are worried that lack of proper preparations could hamper their effective performance in Oregon
The athletes’ situation has been made worse by the AFN President, Mr Tonobok Okowa’s refusal to use his personal money to sponsor them.
A source in the AFN disclosed that the athletics boss was unhappy with the Ministry of Youth and Sports following their refusals to defray the accumulated money owed him by the ministry following his continued sponsorship of the athletes in previous competitions.