By Uzor Odigbo
For the second year in a row Nigeria’s track and field team has failed to participate in a global underaged athletics events as the IAAF World U-20 Championships began Tuesday in Tampere, Finland.
Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Secretary General, Amaechi Akawo said Nigeria’s inability to make the trip to the Scandinavia country was due to visa hitches as the three athletes selected for the championships were not granted entry visas.
Two of the athletes, long jumper Arinze Benjamin and sprinter Adegoke Enoch missed the long jump and men’s 100m events which were held on the opening day of the championships.
Arinze who holds a personal best of 7.91m achieved in Lagos last June could have made the final of the event by just equaling his personal best feat as four athletes who jumped below 7.57m made the final.
Adegoke who holds a personal best of 10.19 seconds in the 100m achieved last April at the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia could also have raced easily into Wednesday evening’s semi-final as the fastest qualifying time was 10.30 seconds.
Local athletics observers have blamed the AFN for truncating the ambitions of the country’s young and talented athletes who could have used the competition to launch themselves into global reckoning.
They readily cited the likes of Falilat Ogunkoya, Davidson Ezinwa, Fatimah Yusuf, Deji Aliu, Olabisi Afolabi and Francis Obikwelu who struck gold at the championships and grew to become household names in international athletics.
They also argued that some others like Seun Ogunkoya, Mary Onyali, Olapade Adeniken and Glory Alozie who also made the podium at the championships grew to become world beaters.
Divine Oduduru who won a 200m silver four years ago in Eugene, Oregon, USA is already showing signs of conquering the world and they hope the AFN realises the damage its ineptitude has done to these youngsters.
Nigeria has won a total of 30 medals at the championships made up of 10 gold,13 silver and seven bronze.
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