Nigeria’s Favour Ofili has advanced to the women’s 200 meters semi-final at the Paris 2024 Olympics achieving a season’s best time of 22.24 seconds to win heat 6.
Ofili secured her spot in the semi-finals, defeating Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith and Gambia’s Gina Bass-Bittaye who came second and third respectively. The 21-year-old was previously denied participation in the 100-meter race at the ongoing Olympics due to administrative errors by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC).
Expressing her frustration in a series of tweets on Tuesday, Ofili criticized both organizations and demanded accountability for her missed opportunity. “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 meters at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what?” she posted.
In response, Nigeria’s Sports Minister, John Enoh, announced a probe into the exclusion of Favour Ofili from the 100m women’s event. “I have been duly informed that some other countries have similar issues, and these aforementioned bodies do not want to open a floodgate that would become difficult to manage. However, I am not concerned about other countries. My interest is with my own country Nigeria and who is responsible for the non-listing of Favour Ofili.
Furthermore, I have been briefed that World Athletics submitted that when the final list was published in July, AFN should have called its attention to the omission of Favour Ofili’s name. This still doesn’t address the issue. At what point did her name drop out of the 100m race? Who’s responsible for this? What’s the motivation behind this?
What’s the trail of communication from AFN to NOC and to IOC and/or World Athletics?” he inquired.
