The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has come and gone for Team Nigeria, with various occurrences taking place right there in the capital city of Japan that further put the spotlight on the performance of the Nigerian contingent which was by all means subpar, especially the mass disqualification of Team Nigeria’s athletes due to the failure of the administrators to put the necessary requirements in place.
On the upside, Nigeria amassed more medals than it did in the previous two editions of the Olympics combined, but the grand total of two medals puts the performance of the Nigerian contingent into perspective.
Here is a breakdown of the performances of the individual athletes that competed various events at the Olympics;
- Uche Eke (Gymnastics): America-born Gymnast Eke was Nigeria’s first-ever representative in gymnastics. The 24-year-old finished in 36th place in the All-around gymnastics category with a score of 74.765 to just miss out on a place in the quarterfinals. He competed in seven medal-awarding events in what was his debut Olympic Games.
- Habibat Ogunbanwo (Women’s swimming): 17-year-old Habibat Abiola Ogunbanwo represented Nigeria in the women’s 100m freestyle event and won her Heat excellently with a time of 59.74 seconds, setting a new national record and becoming the first Nigerian woman to finish the event in under one minute. She failed to qualify for the semifinals of the event as her time was not among the best sixteen in the event.
- D’Tigers (Men’s basketball): D’Tigers endured a disappointing tournament after winning two of three exhibition matches before the tournament. The Nigerian team lost all three of their Group B matches against Australia, Germany and Italy to exit the competition after the preliminary round.
- D’Tigress (Women’s basketball): Like their male counterparts, Nigeria’s female basketball team lost all three of their preliminary round matches against USA, France and hosts Japan to crash out of the first round of the competition.
- Men’s 100m: The trio of Enoch Adegoke, Usheoritse Itsekiri and Divine Oduduru competed in the men’s 100m event. Adegoke recorded a personal best time of 9.98s as he reached the final before picking up an injury during the finals. Itsekiri failed to qualify for the final as he picked up an injury and got eliminated in the semifinal. Oduduru got disqualified in his first heat at the event, eliminating him before the race even started.
- Men’s 200m: Divine Oduduru represented Nigeria in the men’s 200m event, and he reached the semifinals before narrowly missing out on a place in the final by 0.06 seconds.
- Mixed 4X400m: Following the disqualification of Chidi Okezie, the quartet of Patience Okon-George, Emmanuel Ojeli, Samson Nathaniel and Imaobong Nse-Uko represented Nigeria at the Olympics, setting a new African record in the inaugural mixed event at the Olympics. They failed to progress beyond the first heat as they finished in last place.
- Table Tennis: Aruna Quadri, Olajide Omotayo, Funke Oshonaike and Offiong Edem represented Nigeria in the table tennis singles. Three of the four participants lost in the first round at the Games, with Offiong the only one to reach the second round before getting eliminated.
- 100m hurdles: Oluwatobiloba Amusan reached the final of the women’s 100m hurdles and finished in fourth place after a slow start to the race cost her a place on the podium.
- Women’s 100m: Grace Nwokocha and Blessing Okagbare qualified for the semifinals before Okagbare was disqualified over a failed drug test. Nwokocha failed to qualify for the final after a fifth-place finish in the semifinals.
- Women’s 200m: Grace Nwokocha was Nigeria’s lone representative in the 200m sprint, and she missed out on a place in the final after a fourth-place finish in the semifinals.
- Women’s 400m: Patience Okon-George failed to qualify from her Heat after she finished in seventh place and was eliminated at the first round.
- Elizabeth Anyanacho (Taekwondo): Anyanacho was Nigeria’s lone representative in the Taekwondo event and fell to a experienced campaigner Nur Tartar in the Round of 16 of the 67kg category.
- Wrestling: The quintet of Blessing Oborodudu, Odunayo Adekuruoye, Aminat Adeniyi, Adijat Idris and Ekerekeme Agiomor represented Nigeria in various weight classes, with Oborodudu winning Nigeria’s first-ever wrestling medal, a silver, in the women’s 68kg category.
- Long Jump: Ese Brume picked up Nigeria’s first athletics medal since 2008 when she won bronze with a leap of 6.97m at the Tokyo Olympics.
- Women’s 4X100m: The quartet of Ese Brume, Grace Nwokocha, Tobi Amusan and Patience Okon-George could only finish in sixth place in their Heat, missing out on a place in the semifinals as a result.
- Ayomide Bello (Canoeing): Ayomide Bello finished in third place in Heat 3 of the 200m women’s Solo Canoeing event, missing out on a place in the event’s semifinals.
- Esther Toko (Rowing): Esther Toko finished Heat 1 of the women’s singles rowing event in 5th place before finishing the repechage in fourth place to miss out on a place in the quarterfinals.
- Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (Shotput): Chukwuebuka Enekwechi qualified for the final of the men’s shotput in one of the non-automatic qualification places before finishing in last place in the final disappointingly.
- Badminton: Godwin Olofua and Emmanuel Opeyori represented Nigeria in the men’s doubles event and crashed out after successive group stage defeats to Japan and Denmark. Dorcas Adesokan lost to Spain’s Clara Azurmendi and South Korea’s An Se-Young to crash out from the women’s singles in the group stage.
The performance of Team Nigeria in Tokyo was far from desirable to Nigerians and fans who love betting on sports, but the youth of many of the representatives is a possible indicator that forthcoming editions may produce better results.
