SPOTTED: Nigeria written as 'Nigera' on Ofili's jersey at World Championship
BY Idris Shehu
Favour Ofili, the Nigerian sprinter, was spotted wearing a jersey with the country’s name wrongly spelt at the just-completed World Athletics Championship.
Ofili represented Nigeria in both 200 and 4×100 meters races at the championship.
The 19-year-old, who broke Blessing Okagbare’s 200 meters national record in April, reached the semi-final of the event.
She was also part of the quartet which broke Nigeria’s 30-year-old women’s 4×100 meters record in the final at the championship.
The team, which included Ofili, Joy Udo-Gabriel, Rosemary Chukwuma, and Grace Nwokocha, finished fourth after posting 42.22 seconds to retire the record set by the quartet of Christy Opara-Thompson, Faith Idehen, Beatrice Utondu, and Mary Onyali at the 1992 Olympics where Nigeria ended with a bronze medal.
During the photo section after the race, the jersey worn by Ofili had Nigeria misspelt as “Nigera.”
The grave error was, however, not repeated on the jersey of other Nigerian athletes in the race.
This is not the first time Nigerian athletes will be faced with jersey mishaps and controversies in major championships.
During the Tokyo Olympics, a rift between the sports ministry and a factional board of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) inspired a ban on Nigerian athletes from Puma branded apparel at the games.
A video had also surfaced online in which Chukwuebuka Enekwechi appeared to be washing his “only” jersey ahead of the shot-put final.
The situation forced Puma to prematurely terminate the deal it had with AFN with a year remaining.
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