By George Aluo
Nigeria’s weightlifting guru, Lawrence Iquaibom is not happy over the absence of the nation’s lifters at the on going Tokyo 2020 Olympics and he is not hiding it.
Iquaibom who is at the games as one of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) technical officials told newstap.com.ng that he would have loved to see Nigerian lifters be in Tokyo to compete, insisting that Nigeria has lifters who can do the country proud at the biggest stage.
The All Africa Games and Commonwealth games gold medalist noted that weightlifting is one sport where Nigeria has got the potential to rule the world.
It is recalled that Nigeria had won two Olympics medals in weightlifting, two silver won in Beijing 2008 and Sydney 2000. While Miriam Usman won at the Beijing games, Ruth Ogbeifo performed the same feat way back in Sydney.
Looking ahead, Iquaibom who rose to become Akwa Ibom state Director of Sports said he would work hard to see Nigeria bounce back in the sport.
He stated that this informs why he is gunning to be the new president of the Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF).
“I m pained our lifters are not here in Tokyo competing with other weightlifters from different parts of the world. So many factors saw us not qualifying…however, we have to put that setback behind us and ensure we start planning for the Paris games in 2024. My desire is to turn things around for weightlifting in Nigeria and this is why I am going to run for the Presidency of NWF. We have to start planning early and ensure our lifters are in Paris 2024,” Iquaibom said.
