Nigeria targets 2nd Olympics participation in gymnastics
By Emmanuel Afonne
The Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria (GFN) says arrangement were on to ensure its athletes participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France.
Secretary-General of the federation, Davies Oludare, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that they were looking to qualify for the Olympics the second time.
Nigeria’s maiden participation was at the Tokyo 2020.
It would be recalled that the 2020 Olympics hosted in Tokyo, Japan was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic that affected activities across the globe.
Uche Eke qualified to represent Nigeria at the Olympics after winning a bronze medal at the African Championships in Cairo, Egypt in 2021.
“We are planning to go for qualifiers towards the middle of this year and we are looking at where we have strength,” Oludare said.
He said that the federation was considering which countries to attend qualifiers as there were lots of them lined up.
Oludare also said that the federation would be participating in individual events and was looking at its areas of strength.
“We want to be realistic and as such looking at three to four athletes for qualification; they are the athletes we are seeing to attain international standard and we have watched them for years.
“And the countries we are looking at are Egypt, Turkey, any West African countries.
“We are also looking at Azerbaijan or Paris, because we are concerned about training with good facility ahead of the qualification,” Oludare said.
He regretted that the African Games scheduled to be hosted by Ghana would not be a platform for Gymnastics Olympics qualification.
NAN reports that Ghana is not affiliated to the International Gymnastics Federation. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
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Edited by Ismail Abdulaziz
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