The Gymnastics Federation of Nigeria (GFN) says arrangements are on to ensure its athletes participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.
Secretary-General of the federation, Davies Oludare, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja that they were looking to qualify for the Olympics the second time.
Nigeria’s maiden participation was at the Tokyo Games in 2020.
NAN reports that the 2020 Olympics hosted in Tokyo, Japan was postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which affected activities across the globe.
Uche Eke qualified to represent Nigeria at the Olympics after winning a bronze medal at the African Championships in Cairo, Egypt in 2021.
“We are planning to go for qualifiers towards the middle of this year and we are looking at where we have strength,” Oludare said.
He said the federation was considering which countries to go to for the qualifiers as there were lots of them lined up.
Oludare also said that the federation would be participating in individual events and was looking at its areas of strength.
“We want to be realistic and as such looking at three to four athletes for qualification. These are the athletes we are seeing to their attaining international standard and we have watched them for years.
“And, the countries we are looking at for the qualifiers include Egypt, Turkey and any of the West African countries.
“We are also looking at Azerbaijan or Paris in France, because we are concerned about training with good facilities ahead of qualification,” Oludare said.
He regretted that the African Games scheduled to be hosted by Ghana would not be a platform for Gymnastics Olympics qualification.
NAN reports that Ghana is not affiliated to the International Gymnastics Federation.
