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Nigeria: Wrestling - Country Risks Losing 2 Olympic Slots
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Vanguard (Lagos)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Solomon Nwoke
Nigeria runs the risk of losing her slots in wrestling in the forthcoming Beijing 2008 Olympics as the International Wrestling body, FILA move to rule out the country's automatic qualification for the Games in two female weight categories, following protests by Tunisia.
Nigeria Amateur Wrestling Federation (NAWF) Technical Director and National Wrestling coach, Daniel Igali dropped the hint that the country was found culpable, but said the federation is fighting hard to overturn the judgment in Nigeria's favour or at least gain some sort of concession.
The Nigerian-born Canadian Olympic wrestling champion said the decision was not political, but hinged it on failure of the Nigerian team to arrive Dubai on schedule, due to lack of funds.
"The Tunisians are protesting against some errors and other lapses in the registration of the two female wrestlers. They have a valid case which they are raising, and we just have to respect them.
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"The fact is that we had some lapses while making our presentations and it was caused mostly by our late arrival for the competition.
"We just hope the world body would review the case in our favour, based on arguments that the wrestlers eventually qualified before the protests came," Igali reasoned.
The former Olympic and world freestyle wrestling champion also pointed out that all hope is not lost, saying the wrestling federation has an equally good case to present and remain upbeat the ruling could eventually go Nigeria's way.
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