LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES: Nigeria In Race Against Time

A slogan commonly bandied by Nigerians is “Fire Brigade”. It is not only limited to football but other sports in the country.

The London 2012 Olympic Games is around the corner, but while other countries are preparing hard for the tournament, Nigeria is yet to get its act together.

The Olympic Games is held every four years and any country that wants to make any considerable impact needs to commence preparation in good time.

As the Game is approaching there are no signs of serious preparation and questions are not asked about how to excel at the tournament in which athletes across the globe would be at their best to win medals for their countries.

And should Team Nigeria fail to fly high the Nigerian flag, then, as usual, the bulk passing game come to fore.

The National Sports Commission, NSC and the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC, will start exchanging words on who to blame for the failure of Team Nigeria.

In most of the countries that would compete at the Olympics, preparations are already in top gear. Sporting federations are projecting the number of medals they could win for their countries.

However in Nigeria, the officials are already counting their gains even before the Games begins.

Out of the 24 sports to be featured at the Games, Nigeria has entered for nine for the Olympics and four for the Paralympics; these are sports which the country has comparative advantages.

Some of the sports are athletics, canoeing, table tennis, taekwondo, wrestling and badminton, basketball, boxing and weightlifting.

P.M.Sports chronicles some of the sports that Nigeria will be participating in at the Olympics and their chances of coming back home with medals.

Nigeria’s participation in basketball at the 2012 Olympic Games in London rests solely on the senior national men’s team, D’Tigers, who will still have to qualify for the Games through an Olympic Qualifying tournament coming up in Caracas ,Venezuela in July, after their female counterparts, D’Tigress, failed to qualify.

Rashidat Sadiq-captained D’ Tigress were denied another berth at the Olympics, after they featured at the 2008 Olympics in Beijin, China, owing to their failure to make the podium at the 2011 Women’s Afrobasket 2011 in Bamako, Mali.

However, D’Tigers’ third place finish at the 2011 Afrobasket, hosted in Madagascar, could only qualify them for an Olympic play-off in Venezuela, where 12 teams would compete for the three remaining slots for the Olympics.

P.M Sports gathered that the D’Tigers will camp in Orlando, Florida, USA, to prepare for the 2012 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament that will be held on 2–8 July 2012 in Caracas, Venezuela.

Other teams competing with Nigeria in Venezuela are Angola, Dominican Republic, F.Y.R. of Macedonia, Greece, Jordan National Team, Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Russia.

Speaking on the state of preparedness of D’Tigers for the tournament in Venezuela, at a media parley in Lagos recently, , President of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF, Tijani Umar, expressed delight with the present forms of Nigerian players at their various clubs in Europe and America. The Nigerian basketball boss said: “We are really delighted with the performances of our players at their club, especially those that we have shortlisted for national team camp that will open very soon in America.”

Umar stressed further that various friendly matches have been arranged with top flight nations for the team, adding that they are also in talks with some teams that have qualified for the Olympics to compete in a 4-nation tourney.

The track and field events have always been Nigeria’s strength at the Games but with the way and manner that the Athletics Federation of Ngeria is going about preparations, the athletes may return to the country empty handed.

Former Commissioner for Sports in Edo State and athletics coach, Brown Ebewele, has predicted doom for Nigerian athletes. He opined that it would be best if Nigerian athletes shun the Games because it appears that they are embarking on a wild goose chase.

Ebewele called for a total overhaul of the NSC, saying that is the only way Nigeria can regain her status as a sports country. The former national athlete said he was not surprised at the country’s shoddy preparations ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games, adding that it will take ‘magic’ for the country’s athletes to win medals at the global games.

Ebewele said:“Until the NSC is overhauled sports will continue to suffer. The Director General played football and is educated but he runs away from people who will ask him questions. If you can’t ask people who know what sports is all about to help out, then it means everything going on in the sports industry is a joke.”

Sharing Ebewele’s pessimism is Nigeria’s bronze medalist in the 200m at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA, Mary Onyali-Omagbemi believes Team Nigeria need miracle to get close to the medal zone going by their preparation.

Onyali-Omagbemi, the first Nigerian to compete at five consecutive Olympics from Barcelona ’88 to Athens ‘04 before her feat was equaled by table tennis players, Bose Kaffo and Segun Toriola, four years later in Beijing 2008, said Nigerians should not expect much from Team Nigeria.

She, however, urged the country’s track and field athletes to aim high as they step up their preparation for the Games, saying the appointment of Innocent Egbunike as head coach of the AFN, would boost the country’s chances of doing well at the Games.

In the table-tennis event, Team Nigeria will be banking on the trio of Aruna Quadri, Toriola (men) and EdemOffiong Women’s Singles to get medals in the pin-pong sport.

The London Games would be Toriola’s sixth attempt but some pundits have faulted the NSC for its failure to groom successors for Nigeria’s ageing sportsmen, arguing that Nigeria must take grassroots sports serious if the country must return to her zenith.

In the taekwondo event, Team Nigeria’s hope will be resting on the shoulders of Beijing 2008 Bronze medalist, Chika Chukwumerije, in the 87kg and Isah Adam, 68kg.

Chukwumerije narrowly missed clinching gold at the 2008 Olympic because of an injury, so Nigerian taekwondoists are expected to do well at this year’s games.

As a form of motivation to the taekwondoists, the Korean Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Choi Jong-Hyun, made an undisclosed cash donation to Chukwumerije and Mohammed to assist them in their preparations for the games.

Making the donation through the Director of Korean Cultural Centre Abuja, Mr. Suh Jeong Sun, the Ambassador, said even as the money is not much, he believes it would support the athletes’ preparations for the London Olympics.

Another area of concern is the inclusion of canoeing as part of sports that Nigeria will be participating in at the meet, going by the waterways that the country can boast of.

Other things being equal, the sport can fetch Nigeria a medal, but the questions being raised is, are the athletes familiar with the canoes that would be used at the Games?

Weightlifting is a sport that has always helped Nigeria in Africa but outside the continent, it has not been forthcoming.

However, what has been drawing the irk of sports-loving Nigerians was the comment credited to the Supervising Minister of Sports Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi that Team Nigeria is going to London to showcase Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage, while other countries would be carting the medals home.

If the trip to London is not going to be a jamboree, time will tell.