Favour Ofili

By Tony Ubani

Nigeria’s first individual Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa has lashed out at sports administrators as the sole reason for the dumping of Nigeria by Favour Ofili who switched nationality to Turkey.

Last week, the 150-meter world record holder cited the frustration she suffered at the hands of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) in recent international competitions as reasons for the switch.

And speaking yesterday at the Chioma Ajunwa Golden dreams without drug abuse or illicit trafficking campaign project in Lagos, the multi-talented athlete, Ajunwa, pulled no punches in condemning administrators for frustrating Ofili in throwing in the towel.

‘’It’s quite unfortunate and disheartening for such a young promising athlete to leave her country to join another country. I guess she was not advised properly but there are no blames for her. You can’t blame her because after the heartbreak she suffered at the Olympics, there was no punishment for the culprits. They should have been penalized to realize the enormity of their mistakes. After losing sweat and blood training for four years, you shattered her dreams. It’s a great pain, a nightmare, a bad memory that impacted on her emotion and well-being. She will live with that trauma for a long time’’, Ajunwa said at the National Institute for Sports, Lagos.

The retired Deputy Commissioner of Police who was a member of the Falcons during the Women’s World Cup in 1991 also blamed sports administrators for not compensating her to cushion the effect of her trauma but instead swept it under the carpet.

‘’The main reason for switching nationality is the fact that the culprits are still very much around in athletics. Their presence will forever hound her. I think that’s the major reason for her to take a walk’’.

Ofili also was among the 10 Nigerian athletes who missed the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to AFN’s failure to meet mandatory anti-doping requirements.