Nigerian Judokas May Miss Tokyo 2020 Olympics
Posted on June 25, 2019
IKPO IGBINOBA
With barely a year to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, it is certain that Nigeria judokas won’t feature in the games.
Having missed out in almost a dozen qualifying tournaments, it would be a miracle to have Nigeria flag hoisted at the judo event in the Games.
Nigeria judokas last featured in the quadrennial Games in the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
The qualifiers for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics began in May 25,2018 and will end in May 24, 2020.
While judokas from Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Côte d’Ivoire have been attending different qualifiers, their Nigerian counterparts have been idle.
Consequently, the aforementioned countries have booked slots in the judo event of the games.
Nigeria, which was one of the continent’s big guns in the martial arts, is now one of the minnows in the sport.
No thanks to the current leadership of the Nigeria Judo Federation, NJF which has virtually run the sport aground.
Since assuming office in 2013, Mr Timothy Nsirim who got a fresh mandate albeit controversially in June 2017 has only organised two national championships.
With no funding from the Sports Ministry, attending international championships, has remained in the realm of dreams for judokas.
A judoka who spoke to P.M. EXPRESS anonymously lamented that the future of the sport in Nigeria is bleak.
According to him “In the last five years, we have not had up to five national championships and some of us train everyday”.
He revealed that many judokas had dumped the sport because of lack of activities. “Some of my colleagues have taken to other sports because you train every day of the year and you have no competition”.
The judoka blamed the ministry for the woes plaguing the sport.
“They’re the ones who imposed the current leadership headed by a non judoka on the federation.
“It’s only in Nigeria that a non judoka will be President of the judo federation in clear violation of the rules of the International Judo Federation,IJF and now everyone is paying for it”.
He warned that until the right leadership was installed at the Nigeria Judo Federation “our judo will remain the laughing stock”.
Meanwhile, judokas will congregate in Benin City, the Edo State capital for fresh trials for the All Africa Games.
The Sports Ministry which ordered the Benin City trials did not give any reason for cancelling the trials held in Lagos two weeks ago.
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