Tokyo 2020: Dare, Team Nigeria did well -Iloenyosi
By George Aluo
Ex-international, Chikelue Iloenyosi is not one of those who believe sports minister, Sunday Dare and Team Nigeria have not done well, given the nation’s performance at the Tokyo games.
Iloenyosi who spoke exclusively to newstap.com.ng said anybody who wants to do an objective assessment of Team Nigeria’s performance would not be calling for the sports minister’s head since in his words…”so many factors come into play when you go into a competition such as the Olympics.”
Iloenyosi said he is happy that first and foremost the country did better in Tokyo than the two previous outings in London and Rio adding that with some element of luck on the country’s side we could have been talking about returning from Tokyo with at least two gold medals.
“I m not holding forth for the minister or anybody for that matter, but for me, we have not done badly in Tokyo. Winning a silver and a bronze was better than London and Rio. Beyond that, that element of luck which is part of sports was not on our side in Tokyo. If not, we would have been talking about Odunayo Adekuroye winning a medal, a Blessing Okagbare winning a medal and even Adegoke and Divine Oduduru. We all saw how Adekuroye lost out, how Oduduru lost out in the 100m and how Okagbare surprisingly failed drug test…tell me if the minister could have done anything about all these shortcomings. I agree that there are areas where we fell short, but let’s also know that there are areas we did well. D’Tigers and D’Tigress may not have done well, but let’s not forget that qualifying the two teams for the Olympics is a huge achievement. The little girl in Taekwondo Anyanacho is an athlete that would be good for a medal at the Paris games. So, for me, rather than bicker over our showing in Tokyo, we should begin immediately to prepare for Paris 2024.
If the former Sports minister, Solomon Dalung had gotten things right after the Rio games we would probably have done better in Tokyo. Dare has taken some good steps that would make our sports better moving forward…what we need now is to consolidate on them.”
