Tokyo 2020: Team Nigeria offers slender hopes - Punch Newspapers

DELAYED by a year following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic late in 2019, the Games of the XXXII Olympics take centre stage from July 23 in Tokyo, Japan. Despite the rescheduling, expect all the thrills, poignancy, low and high moments associated with the sporting ideals as envisaged by Frenchman, Pierre de Coubertin, when he promoted the first modern Games in 1896 in Athens, Greece.

Of particular interest is Team Nigeria. Africa’s most populous country is participating in nine sport disciplines with a total of 61 athletes. Team Nigeria will file out in canoeing , athletics, table tennis, rowing, taekwondo, badminton, gymnastics, wrestling, and basketball. Frankly, there is little expectation around the team. Boxing, weightlifting and football, which traditionally evoke excitement among Nigerian fans, did not qualify. This dampens the spirit.

But Nigeria struggled to qualify for the women’s 4x100m, 4x400m and the 4x400m mixed relays. Significantly, it missed out in its traditional areas of strength, the men’s 4x100m and 4x400m relays. For perspective, Nigeria paraded two athletes in the men’s 100m final at Barcelona ’92 , winning the silver in the relay. The women’s relay quartet took the bronze.

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