World record holder in the women’s 150m, Favour Ofili, has accused the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Olympic Committee of negligence at the Tokyo 2020 and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, noting that the disappointments motivated her switch to Turkey.
Ofili’s confirmation of her nationality switch comes almost three months after it was first rumoured.
The 22-year-old rattled Nigerian athletics in June with her purported move, and she confirmed it on Monday, a day after the AFN also announced Nigeria’s contingent to the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
Ofili was among the 10 Nigerian athletes who were banned from competing at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 due to missing out of competition tests.
Her travails continued in Paris, where they also failed to register her for the women’s 100m event.
The Turkish athletics body has been shopping for athletes this year, including Jamaicans, and reportedly pay as much as $500,000 to foreign athletes to switch allegiance to the European country.
Following administrative lapses, Nigeria has a rich list of athletes like Francis Obikwelu (Portugal) Gloria Alozie (Spain), Florence Ekpo-Umoh (Germany), Salwa Eid Naser (Bahrain), Femi Ogunode (Qatar), amongst several others, who dumped the country for other nations and went on to excel in their careers internationally.
Individually, Ofili has had a good season, making her Diamond League debut and she made history at the Adidas Atlanta City Games in May by setting a new world record in the 150m, clocking 15.85s to break the previous mark of 16.23s held by Olympic champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo.
