Sprinter dumps Great Britain for Ghana

• Nigerian athletes set for IAAF Indoor in USA
The reverse had always been the case, but this time, sprinter Sean Safo-Antwi has been cleared to switch allegiance from Great Britain to Ghana.

The 25-year-old won the 60m at the Glasgow Indoor Grand Prix and finished third at the British Indoor Championships in February.

British Athletics did not oppose his application to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).Long jumper Jazmin Sawyers has been added to the GB squad for the World Indoor Championships in Portland, USA.Sawyers won the British Indoor title in Sheffield in February. The World Championships take place from March 17 to 20.

Meanwhile, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has predicted that the nation’s athletes will put up a good performance in the fast approaching IAAF World Indoor Championships, Portland 2016.

Board member of AFN, Prof. Ken Anugweje, told The Guardian from the AFN High Performance Centre at the University of Port Harcourt yesterday that athletes who have been training in Nigeria would depart early next week to join their over sea based counterparts.

Preliminary entries of 699 athletes (403 men, 296 women) have been received from 154 federations, making it a significantly larger event than the previous two editions on the continent.

Nigeria will contest alongside Bahamas, Belgium, Guyana, Jamaica, South Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, Poland, Romania, Ukraine and the U.S.
in the championship.

Among the athletes expected to depart from Nigeria next week are sprinter Ogho-Oghene Egwero, Obinna Metu, Noah Akwu and Patience Okon George. Coach Eric Campbell and Gabriel Okon, who will be joined later by two others, will lead the team.

According to Prof. Anugweje, the athletes have what it takes to compete favorably in Portland. “My only concern is that our athletes are coming from a warm region to a colder region. I pray it does no affect them,” Anugweje said.

There were 537 athletes from 93 countries at the 1993 World Indoor Championships in Toronto, while 419 athletes from 85 countries competed at the 1987 World Indoor Championships in Indianapolis.

This year’s championships could be better represented than the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Sopot 2014, at which 539 athletes from 134 nations competed.

The USA is one of just five countries to have hosted IAAF championship events across the four main competition surfaces: outdoors track, indoor track, road and cross-country.