While some countries at the ongoing 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo Japan are celebrating medals already won in barely seven-day-old summer games, Nigeria Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare is busy celebrating failure.
The Minister who has so far relocated to Tokyo as if he was part of the technical team of Team Nigeria in a press statement made available to Core Reporters on Friday expressed excitement over Nigeria Mixed 4x400m team for setting the African Record of 3:13.60 to finish 5th in their semi-final race and lost out of the event
Meanwhile, Nigeria is yet to mount a podium after 7 days in the Olympics, rather tales of how ten athletes were among 18 competitors from “high-risk” nations who have been barred from the Tokyo Olympics after failing to meet requirements for out-of-competition drug testing.
The Athletics Integrity Unit said the athletes concerned had failed to comply with rules introduced in 2019 requiring those from countries deemed to be at the highest risk of doping — so-called “Category A” nations — to undergo three no-notice out-of-competition tests in a 10-month period leading up to a major event.
Prior to the Olympics, instead of focusing on the preparation for medals, Dare was busy playing politics with federations’ leaderships as he unilaterally dissolved the boards of 31 federations without minding consequences.
Team Nigeria has so far participated and crashed out of gymnastics, table tennis, swimming, badminton, taekwondo, rowling, and 4×400 mixed relay.
Recalled that the Minister had boasted how they (Ministry) were focusing on podium athletes.
Meanwhile, African countries like; Tunisia, South Africa, Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire have all recorded their names on the medals table.
