Nigeria’s Shame At Doha 2019

By Akinwale Kasali

The International Association of Athletics Federation Championship held in Doha, Qatar, tagged ‘Doha 2019’, has ended in the Far East country, with Nigeria’s athletes covering their faces in shame.

It was a most woeful outing as the athletes broke the hearts of Nigerians one after the other.

They returned home from the Championship with a  bronze medal, courtesy of Ese Brume in the Long Jump.

Brume leaped a 6.91 mark (+0.3 wind) in her second attempt. She missed the Silver medal by an inch to Ukraine’s Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk (6.92).

Nigeria contingents to the world showpiece weren’t impressive going to the championship looking at their race timing in the IAAF meets this year.

Tobi Amusan, was a medal hopeful, following her impressive run in London, Prague and in the United State meets, few months back. Sadly, she failed to make it to the Podium.

Nigeria’s sole representative in the men shot put event, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi made it to the final amidst tough opponents. Many had expected a Podium finish after his impressive performance at the qualification series, but the hope of millions of Nigerians was dashed.

The female relay team made up of Udo Gabriel Joy, Blessing Okagbare, Ntia Obong Mercy and Rosemary Chukwu put up a disappointing show in the women’s 4x100m relay, finishing 7th, despite running a Season Best time of 13.05seconds.

The male relay team did not fair better, as the quartet of Divine Oduduru, Enoch Adegoke, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, and Seye Ogunlewe failed. It turned out to be a double tragedy. Apart from struggling to finish last in the race, the team was disqualified after one of the athletes committed a technical foul in the process of baton exchange.

It would be recalled that Okagbare and Oduduru were earlier disqualified from competing in the 100 meters dash at the championship following a mix-up by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, for which Okagbare took a swipe on the AFN.

She said, “It’s not the first time they’ve (AFN officials) done a thing like this, they deal with the African Games and national championships, but this is not Africa.

“We’re not running at national championships.

She continued: “People here take the rules seriously and we keep bending them. It’s wrong. It’s incompetency”, she was quoted as saying in an interview with the Associated Press.

After the reinstatement of the duo (Okagbare and Oduduru), both  declined to run in the 100 meters.

Oduduru failed in the 200 meters, while Okagbare was, again,  disqualified.

Since the commencement of the championship on September 27, Nigerian athletes had crashed one after the other. The likes of Blessing Okagbare, Divine Oduduru, Patience Okon George, Favour Ofili, Oyesade Olatoye and Chioma Onyekwere performed below the expectation of Nigerians in Doha, with only Brume giving Nigeria something to cheer about on the last day of the event.