Rio Olympic Trials | Anambra athletes miss All-Nigeria Championships

Anambra State athletes, invit­ed for the All Nigeria Athlet­ics Championships in Sapele, Delta, but who could not participate in the competition have blamed it on the state government’s inability to sponsor them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the champion­ships are to select Nigeria’s represen­tatives in the athletics events of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in Brazil.

No fewer than 14 athletes from the state mainly in the high perfor­mance centres got invitations from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to the event.

Those invited are Olisakwe Chukwudi, Kenneth Iloakagbune, Shadrack Ogbukwo, Peter Precious, Anulika Amaefuna, Rita Odigbo, Grace Anigbata and Amaka Ogoeg­bunam

Others are Ofuma Ezechi, Obinna Metu, Cheta Okeke, Obiora Arinze, Onyinye Okafor and Augustine Nwoye.

Speaking to NAN, the Anambra Athletics Team Coach, Jonny Ig­boka, said that the athletes from the state who were able to make it to the trial were on self- sponsorship.

Igboka said the Anambra Athletics Association had applied to the min­istry to bankroll their trip but their appeal was not successful as at July 7 when the programme commenced.

He thanked the Commissioner for Sports, Uju Nwogu, who ensured that the team was represented at the 2016 Dr D.K. Olukoya U-18 and U-20 Athletics Championships in Lagos and performed well.

He said he had to prevail on the athletes to honour the invitation as it would place them on the path of possibly being selected for the Games and prepare them for other competitions.

“These guys have been in camp training for events like this and it is not good that they missed out, we expected the government to spon­sor them but that was not the case.

“They are our best and if they miss out on this, they will miss the chance of improving on their ranking and chances of going to Rio Olympics.

“They will also miss the oppor­tunity of evaluating those that will compete with them at the National Sports Festival in Calabar,’’ he said.

Reacting to the non-sponsorship, the Director of Sports in the Min­istry, Mr Joseph Umudu, confirmed that there was an application but it was not routed properly.

Umudu said it was wrong for the association to write the commis­sioner directly, pointing out that they were the architects of their in­ability to get funds.

“Yes, there was an application to sponsor the athletes but they did not route the letter properly, you do not just write to the commissioner with­out routing it through my office. If they had done the proper thing, it would not have been late and the long holidays also affected the pro­cess,’’ he said.

Efforts by NAN to reach the com­missioner were unsuccessful as she was not in the office when a NAN Correspondent visited.

And calls placed on her mobile telephone were not responded to or returned.