It’s been one week since the opening ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but Team Nigeria has yet to go any close to making a podium finish in any sport.
The West African giants entered for ten sports specifically and all available representatives in six of those sports, including Table Tennis, have been already eliminated at this point.
To put it clearly, only in Athletics, Basketball, Canoe Sprint and Wrestling does Nigeria have any hope whatsoever of clinching a medal in Tokyo now with just seven days gone by.
It’s worthy to note that there have been some positives however especially from our quite young lone-athlete contingents in Artistic Gymnastics, Rowing and Swimming who all came into the Games with literally zero experience at the level of competition, and have each gone on their Olympic debuts.
The Gymnast among them Uche Eke is just 24 years of age but he made sure to put Nigeria on the world map in his sport with his decent performance at the Games. Before now, Nigeria has never had an athlete compete in Artistic Gymnastics. Africa as a whole itself has scarcely had representatives in the sport before this edition of the Olympics.
But Eke, who clinched Bronze in the All-Around at the African Artistic Gymnastic Championships in May, gave all to score 74.765 in the All-Around qualification round at the Games.
That score couldn’t guarantee him a place in the final of any apparatus and the All-Around, but he will take pride in the fact that he’s paved the way for potential Nigerian gymnasts, home and abroad.
There’s also 17-year-old swimmer Abiola Ogunbanwo who smashed Nigeria’s National Record (NR) in the women’s 100m Freestyle at the Games. Two-time Olympian Ngozi Monu held the previous NR at 1:00.50 for over 14 years before Ogunbanwo prettied up the record by becoming the first Nigerian woman to go under the one-minute mark (over the long course) in the event.
The teenage sensation clocked 59.74s to win her heat but it yet wasn’t enough to earn her qualification to the next round as, according to the rules in swimming, only the fastest times (top 16 overall in this case) are considered for qualification, placement is irrelevant.
Home-based rower Esther Toko (21) then proved that you don’t need to be abroad to get Olympic participation in ‘lower’ sports for Nigeria. She finished 30th overall in the women’s single sculls with a time of 8:42.78.
On the flip side, Team Nigeria faced huge disappointment in sports like Table Tennis where all but one participant could not get past their respective first hurdles.
Debutant Olajide Omotayo lost in his first-round encounter, even worse veteran Funke Oshonaike faced elimination in the preliminary round. Offiong Edem, who was the only one that tasted progress, succumbed to defeat in the second round after her first-round victory.
Then all hopes hinged on Africa’s no. 1 Aruna Quadri, but he too couldn’t do much as he got eliminated in his first match in Round 3 of the men’s singles after getting drawn bye for the first two rounds.
On Thursday came salt to Team Nigeria’s injury after the World Athletics’ integrity unit announced that 10 Nigerian athletes will be disallowed from partaking in the Games due to the Nigerian Federation’s failure to fully meet the anti-doping testing requirements in the lead-up to the Games.
Now, only 12 athletes are officially entered for events in the Track and Field and Nigeria’s medal hopes at this Olympics heavily depend on them.
Athletes had only gotten underway in Tokyo and already there are signs of good things to come. Blessing Okagbare and Grace Nwokocha – the two Nigerian representatives in the women’s 100m – did well in the early hours of Friday (Nigerian time) to earn qualification to the semi-finals of the event.
There’s also Long Jump specialist Ese Brume – who has leaped farthest for her event (7.17m) in the world this season – who we can say, for certain, is a good medal prospect. Tobi Amusan is ranked no. 4 in the world in the women’s 100m Hurdles, so she’s also definitely another athlete to look out for.
Aside Track & Field events, Wrestling is another sport Nigeria has a glimmer of hope for a medal in. Odunayo Adekuoroye (Women’s 57kg) particularly, a double Commonwealth Games champion, is a very bright prospect.
Two-time Olympian Blessing Oburududu (68kg) and Aminat Adeniyi (62kg) have shown over the years that they are a force to reckon with in their respective events as well.
Maybe there could be big surprises in store for the team in Basketball, but Team Nigeria’s medal hope truly depends on the performance of its Wrestlers and now depleted Track and Field contingents at this point.
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