Amusan leads relay teams to China

The Secretary General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Israel Inwang, has dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the Elite Development and Podium Board, set up by the National Sports Commission (NSC), single-handedly picked beneficiaries of the elite athletes’ $20,000 training grants.

The Guardian reported, yesterday, that the NSC in its effort towards building a formidable Team Nigeria for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, and the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, USA, has made good its promise to pay training grants of $20,000 to elite athletes.

The report also indicated that a total of 78 Nigerian athletes across all major sporting federations are beneficiaries of the grants, with 38 of them picked from track and field.

But the report elicited criticism from some stakeholders, who alleged that the Yusuf Ali-led Elite Development and Podium Board single-handedly picked the benefiting athletes without informing board members in the various sports federations.

They also alleged that track and field athletes qualified for the training grants are “grossly less than 20 (home and abroad), suggesting that the Elite Development and Podium Board may be doing some dirty deals with the number of athletes listed.

“Nigeria doesn’t have 38 active professional elite athletes that will benefit from training grants. Yusuf Ali’s committee is not AFN. He can’t just pick elite athletes without liaising with the Federation. I don’t think we have up to 10 athletes that are top ranked to be called elite,” one of the stakeholders said.

However, Inwang said in a message to The Guardian, yesterday, that the board followed due process in selecting the athletes. Also speaking with on the issue, Yusuf Ali, said: “Only a sadist will pick holes in what we have done so far. In the first place, the AFN and other sports federations are under the NSC. As head of the Elite Development and Podium Board, the first step I took in picking the elite athletes was to look at their performance, competitions they participated in and their ages.

“Then, I met with the technical directors and some top coaches in the AFN, weightlifting and all the other sports federations. While comparing the list, I discovered that some of the athletes listed by the coaches won’t be of benefit to Nigeria.

“For instance, the technical director in one of the sports federations penciled down an athlete who is already 34 years old. By the time of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics, such athlete will be 38 years old. I also noticed another athlete who has not attended a major competition in the last two or three years. We have to drop those athletes from the list.

“The elite athletes benefiting from the NSC training grants are in different categories. Some are in Category A, others are in Category B, and some in Category C. As we speak, the NSC has started disbursement of training grants to the athletes and they are so excited because this is the first time they are getting such big amount of money from the country to take care of certain things.

“We don’t need to wait for competition time before giving out athletes training grants. As good as our intention are, I know that there are some people who will want to frustrate the process but the leadership of the NSC won’t listen to them because such people don’t mean well for the country,” Ali stated.

Meanwhile, world record holder in the women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, is among athletes picked to fly Nigeria’s flag at the 2025 World Athletics Relays in China.

Others are Favour Ofili, Tiana Eyakpobeyan, Rosemary Chukwuma, Patience Okon-George, Omolara Ogunmakinju, Success Umukoro and Jennifer Chukwuka. The men’s list has Udodi Onwuzurike, Favour Ashe, Usheoritse Itsekiri, Alaba Akintola, Karlington Anunagbo, Chidi Okezie, Samson Nathaniel, and Emmanuel Ojeli.

Nigeria will feature in four relay events, 4x100m relay (men and women), 4x100m mixed relay and 4x400m mixed relay. The 4x400m relay squad is left out from 2025 World Athletics Relays holding at the Guangdong Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou, China between May 10 and 11, which is the last major event for the current AFN board before the federations’ elections next month.