The country featured 88 athletes in 12 sports and came off empty-handed, making it a chastening Olympics for Nigerian Sports, the country’s worst outing at the Olympics since London 2012, as notable medal prospects Tobi Amusan, Blessing Oborududu, Favour Ofili, Ese Brume, and Quadri Aruna fell short in their respective events.
As has been the case in almost all international outings, Nigeria’s campaign was dented by controversies. Ofili’s name was inexplicably omitted from the women’s 100m roster for which she had qualified. The age-old kitting crisis reared its ugly head as athletes had two kits separately supplied by the Athletes Federation of Nigeria and National Olympic Committee.
After Amusan’s failure, Hannah Reuben was the last athlete left to salvage a medal for the country, but she lost her second-round fight in the women’s freestyle wrestling 76 kg, 5-2 (victory by points) to Mongolia’s Davaanasan Amar Enkh on Saturday.
Only D’Tigress gave Nigerians something to cheer as Rena Wakama’s team braced the odds to reach the quarterfinals of the Women’s Basketball Tournament, becoming the first African team to reach that stage of Olympics basketball.
Their laudable performance lent credence to the objective selection of players by a coach with tactical and technical savvy.
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