With just two days to the start of the 2022 World Athletics Championships, Team Nigeria are in a familiar pit of chaos.
Ezinne Abba, a sprinter, has lashed out in frustration on Wednesday morning after being told she cannot take part in this Games — under bizarre circumstances.
She was on her way to the airport to board a flight to the Games when she says, a message came in from Nigeria that she will not be partaking in the Championships.
Having completed two of three drug tests required, the Nigerian authorities told Ezinne they were scared she could fail the third.
She expressed her disappointment in a post on her Instagram page.
The 21-year-old completed a nationality switch from the United States of America to represent Nigeria ahead of the Championships.
Prior to her post, the Nigerian athletes were yet to report to camp with the championships commencing on Friday, July 15.
Nigeria’s sports ministry was yet to release funds for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), leading to the delay in their preparations.
Home-based athletes were yet to start camping while foreign-based athletes were training individually as they prepared for the championships.
Akintola Alaba, who is also facing the same challenge as Enzinne, shared a post on social media to express his displeasure.
The post read, “Sadly, I’m going to be out of world championship after I qualified for 3 events(100M,200M & 4*100M) not because I failed dope but because of politics because that’s what it looks like rn; they hid under the umbrella of OCT(out of competition test) meaning I didn’t submit my whereabouts or whatever(been on this shii since march ).
“They already cost me a major championship (that’s they plan ikr)and I knew they know what they doing/did . Thanks to everyone that cared and showed love, really appreciate it Stepping stone to greater things MT on me.”
The 2022 World Athletes Championships is scheduled for Oregon, United States from July 15-24.
A repeat of the Tokyo debacle
Nigeria lost 10 athletes due to the ‘Out of Competition’ tests prior to 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games.
A huge scandal rocked Team Nigeria’s during Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games when 10 of their athletes were disqualified from competing in the event after they failed to undergo mandatory tests ahead of the global sports event.
The Athletics Integrity Unit in a statement did not mention the names of the affected Nigerian athletes but said a total of 20 athletes across the world were disqualified from the Olympics for not meeting minimum requirements by Category A countries.
