Athletics in crisis: Poor planning, missing stars hurt Nigeria’s Tokyo chances

The National Sports Commission (NSC) is reportedly upset with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) because Nigeria didn’t qualify for any relay events during the National Trials held in Lagos.

This puts the country at risk of missing the relay races at the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo something that has never happened since the event began in 1983.

The AFN said it doesn’t have enough money to send athletes to a qualifying competition in Accra, Ghana, which was moved to August 19–20.

But the NSC says they already gave AFN enough funding for the trials and are disappointed by the poor results.

A top official from the NSC questioned what happened to the money given to AFN and said it’s not right to ask for more funds without delivering results. According to the official, anyone claiming the government hasn’t supported AFN should reveal how much the federation has already received this year.

Even though AFN announced a 26-athlete team for the Accra meet, top athletes like Tobi Amusan, Ezekiel Nathaniel, and Israel Okon won’t be going.

A report from SportsNow.ng said many Nigerian athletes in the U.S., such as Chidi Okezie and other top college runners, were in great shape and could have helped Nigeria qualify.

But the AFN failed to organize or attend events that could’ve given Nigeria the needed results.

For example, Nigeria’s men’s 4x400m team had fast runners who could have easily beaten the current qualifying time held by Zambia.

The men’s 4x100m and women’s relay teams also had strong athletes available, but poor planning by the AFN led to missed opportunities.

Now, Nigeria has until August 24 to qualify for the relays, but with many athletes already back abroad after the Lagos trials, it may be too late.