TELL IT

Athletics Federation of Nigeria officials said they have no fear of Nigerian athletes failing a dope test at the IAAF World Championships billed for August 10-18 in Moscow, Russia. This is against the background of high profile dope failure by two big names in the  sport and also a growing suspicion that many more elite athletes are not running free and there could be more revelations in the coming weeks. [caption id="attachment_86968" align="alignnone" width="400"] File photo: Athletes[/caption] At the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, three Nigerian female athletes tested positive to banned drugs, but according to Dr. Ken Anugueje who is AFN’s medical director, that is not likely  to happen in 2013 with the Nigeria team. He argued that so far so good all the athletes who made the party to Russia have been given a clean bill based on the last dope test conducted at the Cross River/All Nigeria Championships in June. “Normally after two weeks of...

With only a month left for the IAAF World Championships to begin, Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN is yet to commence final rehearsals for its team. And from all indications, Nigeria is likely to bank on the element of luck to win a medal in Moscow, Russia. It was gathered that the AFN is still searching for funds to start camping of the selected athletes as efforts by the board led by Solomon Ogba has yielded no result. [caption id="attachment_352464" align="alignnone" width="412"] Oshomhole with Edo athletes[/caption] “There is a saying that it is only money that can bring your plans to fruition. We would have loved to camp the athletes for at least two weeks. But for now there is no such thing, we have no funds to make the camping happen.   “Our major worry is our relay teams. They have a good chance to win medals for us, but if they don’t practice, we would have to go there and try harder,” said an official of the federation yesterday. He added t...