OLYMPICS INVESTIGATION LAUNCHED AFTER ATHLETE LEFT OFF START LIST IN EMBARRASSING SAGA

Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili saw her name left off the entry list for the women's 100m at the Olympics, sparking an investigation as to how the mishap occurred.

The 21-year-old was poised to compete in three separate events at the games in Paris - the 100m, 200m and women’s 4x100m relay. But ahead of Friday's heats Ofili has been told that she wasn't registered for the 100m. Both Nigerian officials and governing body World Athletics have denied responsibility.

Amid the mounting confusion the sprinter herself took to social media to lament the situation she finds herself in. Ofili said: “I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what?”

World Athletics, the organisation who are responsible for drawing up start lists, have confirmed that Ofili was only entered in two events - the 200m and the women’s 4x100m relay, hence her absence from the 100m.

Solomon Ogba, a vice president of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, told BBC Sport Africa: “We are trying to get to the root of it, because she qualified in our trials and the result was sent to World Athletics. We just confirmed that. Normally World Athletics will send [entries] for Paris 2024. That is where the confusion is.”

Ofili has blamed the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) for the failure to register her for the 100m heat and claimed that neither organisation can be trusted as she continued her social media rant.

"I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me," she said. "If those responsible are not held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organisation can ever be trusted in the future!"

Three years ago at the last Olympics in Tokyo the Nigerian also missed out on the chance to race due to a technicality. She was due to make her debut at the Games in Japan but couldn't compete after not meeting requirements for a minimum number of out-of-competition drug tests.

South Africa swimmer Lara Van Niekerk was another female who missed out on her Olympics dream due to an admin error as there was mishap with the registration of her times. It was reported that van Niekerk twice recorded Olympic A cuts at meets that were not properly registered by South African authorities as official qualifying meets.

She said: "It breaks my heart to be missing out on the Paris Olympic Games as 2024 was the Olympics I have worked for since being a little girl. I qualified on 2 different occasions but due to circumstances beyond my control the times did not count. The Olympic dream is not over, it simply got delayed."

2024-08-01T08:34:40Z