Nigerian athletes begin journey to Rio Olympics

Nigerian athletes begin journey to Rio Olympics
Nigeria home-based athletes hoping to be part of this year’s Rio Olympics Games will be tested today, as the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), holds its first competition for the year. The event tagged AFN Over Distance competition will take place this morning in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

Already, all top AFN officials, including coaches are in the Garden City for the competition.All top Nigerian local-based athletes, including sprinters Obinna Metu and Divine Oduduru are in Port Harcourt waiting to test run their skills.

It was learnt yesterday that one of Nigeria’s leading male sprinters, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, who took permission from the AFN to travel abroad for his contract signing about a week ago, has breezed in for the event.

Today’s Over Distance competition will see the home-based athletes feature in 3,000m, 1,000m, 600m, 300m, 150m and 60m events.
AFN President, Solomon Ogba told The Guardian that the body would use the competition as final assessment of the athletes to know area they need to improve upon in readiness for the Olympics.

Also, the Secretary General of AFN, Olumide Bamiduro, who is also in Port Harcourt, confirmed yesterday that athletes from all 36 states of the federation and clubs would take part in the competition.It was however learnt that some states opted out due to alleged short notice from the AFN.