The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has debunked claims it omitted the name of its reigning 100 metres queen, Favour Ofili, from the sprint event at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
This comes after the track queen accused the Athletics body of incompetence and deliberately omitted her name from of the biggest events at the Games.
However, the AFN has refuted the claims of Ofili stating that her omission from the Paris Olympics women’s 100m event also came to them as a surprise as she was duly registered for the event.
She had raised the alarm on Wednesday morning on discovering that her name was not on the list of competitors for the 100 metres event.
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However, AFN Technical Director, Samuel Onikeku, responded to her claim, stating: “We registered Ofili for the 100 metres, 200 metres, and the 4×100 metres relay. We don’t know how her name got missing in the 100 metres. This is our stand as a federation.”
There are reports that the AFN submitted Ofili’s name to the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) for the three events that were on the final list sent for the Paris Olympics.
The reason why Ofili’s name was omitted from the women’s 100 metres event remains a mystery, as the in-form athlete would rue another missed opportunity to compete with her colleagues having missed out on the event at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
At the Nigerian Olympics Trials in Benin City, Ofili clocked 11.06 seconds to secure her place among the 56 athletes that will compete in Paris.
Her absence at the event is a major blow to Team Nigeria as she is amongst the medal hopefuls going by her form in recent outings where she has competed in more 100 metres races, clocking two wind-aided times of 10.85 seconds and 10.78 seconds.
