Duro Ikhazuagbe
7 May 2008
Lagos — The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has warned that no athlete is indispensable and any attempt to sabotage the country's gold medal push at this summer Olympiad in Beijing, China will be resisted.
Sunday Bada, technical/performance director of the AFN, who yesterday returned to Lagos from the African Athletics Championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where Nigeria placed second behind South Africa, read out the riot act in apparent reaction to the poor baton exchange in the men's 4x100m which cost the country the gold medal.
"We (technical team) have watched the video replay of the race and discovered some technical errors which apparently led to the poor baton exchange. However, we are not ruling out discontent and deliberate sabotage as a result of the team selection. We are going to allow this matter go like that but will not tolerate such next time," warned the former IAAF World Cup quarter-mile winner.
The AFN technical/performance director told THISDAYSports that all the athletes who ran in that race have been warned and told that Nigeria's interest super cedes any other selfish motive of any single individual.
"Any one not willing to compete will be shown the door," stressed the serving police chief superintendent.
Although Bada did not name the culprits who may have sabotaged the race, he blamed the system that allowed athletes like Uchenna Emedolu and Deji Aliu to still be running when most of their contemporaries elsewhere have hanged their spikes.
"Some of these older athletes have tendencies to be dictating who to run in the team. If we have a system like what obtains in USA where new stars are born almost yearly, by now, most of those causing these problems would have long be forgotten," he noted.
Bada confirmed that most of the elite athletes did not return to Nigeria after the African Championships in Ethiopia. "Soji (Fasuba) did not return. He left for the Doha Grand Prix race in Qatar. Fasuba set the African 100m record of 9.85secs at this same Meet last year.
Emedolu also will be running the 200m at this edition as part of his Beijing Olympic build-up.
"Also, Damola (Osayomi) and Franca (Idoko) left for their respective bases in the USA and Germany. Before leaving, Damola's coach in the USA promised to monitor her progress and feed us back accordingly. Franca on the other hand has gone back to her programme in Germany. They will all return home before the Mobil Championships for proper evaluation of their preparations and the final closed camping," concluded the AFN chief.
Nigeria had hoped to win both the men and women 4x100m and 4x400m at the African meet to reassure the country's plans for the Olympic. While the women won their 4x100m and 4x400m, the men flopped in the sprint relay.
Organizers of the AFN/NSC Invitational Relay Meet had even programmed the team from the African Championships to compete at this weekend's second leg of the relay in Calabar.
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