Daily Independent Online.
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
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Team Nigeria
athletes plan nationality change
By Ben Alaiya
Group
Sports Editor
As the medals
drought continues to trouble Team Nigeria at the on-going Athens 2004 Olympics,
it has been buck-passing galore between athletes and officials, Daily
independent has gathered.
The development has
led to many of the athletes declaring their intentions to dump Team Nigeria for
other countries that have openly been canvassing for Nigerian athletes
following the success of Francis Obikwelu for Portugal.
Among countries
that have reportedly made enquiries about Nigerian athletes are Spain, Portugal
and Great Britain, which paraded a sizeable number of athletes of Nigerian
extraction at the on-going games.
An official who
pleaded anonymity told Daily Independent from Athens that they have heard the
murmurings of many of the athletes and their threats to dump the country but
declared that Team Nigeria gave the athletes all the motivation needed to excel
at the games and wondered why they are now blackmailing for their failure to
deliver. “Athletes were sent to Cuba, Germany and Bulgaria where some of
the best facilities exist for training and they did not deliver so where
exactly did we go wrong that we should now bear the brunt and be called names.
Let those who want to change nationality simply do so and stop looking for
scapegoats”, the official thundered.
