Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili continues to express her frustration towards the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) for failing to register her for the women’s 100m event at the Paris Olympics. PUNCH Sports Extra reports that the 21-year-old athlete is disappointed that she was not included in the heats that took place on Friday.
Despite Sports Minister John Enoh launching an inquiry into the matter, both the AFN and NOC have denied any responsibility. This has left Ofili feeling let down and demanding accountability for the oversight.
Expressing her dissatisfaction, Ofili posted on X, “Sadly, nothing has been done. I’m yet to see or hear anyone being punished for what the NOC and AFN did to me. Athletes shouldn’t be getting punished for things out of their control.”
Ofili also questioned the authority responsible for registering athletes for Olympic events and criticized the recurrent issue of her exclusion by stating, “Who assigned federations and/or Olympic committees to enter athletes into the Olympic Games? Is it World Athletics? If so, should they not hold them accountable when they fail to do their job by not entering athletes in events they qualify and want to compete in? NOC and AFN, this is not the first time you guys are doing this, so don’t think this is over because it is not.”
Having qualified for the women’s 100m event during the AFN National Trials in June, where she clinched her first national title with a personal best time of 11.06s, Ofili had high hopes for the competition.
Earlier in April, she also achieved the Olympic qualifying mark in the 200m event with a time of 22.33s at the Tom Jones Memorial Classic.
Despite the setback, Ofili is set to participate in the 200m heats on Sunday and the women’s 4x100m relay the following Thursday, the two events she was fortunately registered for.