By Our correspondent
It is a well known fact that this Olympic game billed to hold last year was almost cancelled but eventually restructured to take place in 2021 as a result of the lockdown across the whole world caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
Rule 15 of WA-AIU requires athletes to undergo 3 OCT within the 10 months with at least 3 weeks interval preceding the games.
The Lockdown period restricted the movement of most of Nigerian athletes abroad and disrupted the planned activities, thus the late qualification of its athletes, which did not allow for the time spread despite the fact that the athletes were tested and the results showed no adverse analytical findings.
Secondly, most of the athletes are students involved in intercollegiate championships and had some tests at the collegiate level which was not accepted by WA-AIU.
Thirdly, some of the athletes affected just qualified for Olympic at the National Trials barely 4 weeks to the games so it is not possible to meet the requirements of Article 15.
Fourthly, extra efforts were made to test the athletes at their various locations after the national trial in Lagos and some were also tested in Japan before entering the games village.
Fifthly, on arrival in Tokyo, vigorous appeals made to WA-AIU on this issue were not successful.
It is, however, to be noted, that all Nigerian athletes took the three mandatory tests, but the last tests were taken one week too early.