Why Nigerian cyclist borrowed a bicycle at the Olympics – Sports Minister

The Minister of Sports Development, John Owan Enoh, has explained why a Nigerian cyclist, Ese Ukpeseraye, borrowed a bicycle from the German cycling team to participate in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris

Recall yesterday, Thursday, August 8, Ese tweeted about the development thanking the German team for coming to her rescue. Read here.

The development however generated a lot of buzz on social media, with many calling out the Government for such huge embarrassment.

The Minister of Sports has now released a statement, explaining why that happened.

The statement;

‘’My attention has been called to a post on social media by Ese Ukpeseraye. After reading the post and some follow up comments i swung into action. Ese’s post seems to have been grossly misunderstood, perhaps also because it didn’t seem to give proper context to the matter in perspective. It is important i make some clarifications.

Abinitio, Team Nigeria qualified for one road race in cycling and prepared for it in terms of training and the appropriate competition equipment. Team Nigeria was fully prepared for this road race until two weeks ago after the Cycling team with the rest of Team Nigeria had already left for the Olympics, that a communication from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) was received reallocating additional slots to the Cyclist Federation of Nigeria (Kerin and individual sprint). This reallocation to Nigeria was due to the disqualification of a country, leaving Nigeria as the next eligible to make the list of qualified countries to compete. Unfortunately, this additional slot required the use of a different competition equipment in terms of biking.

For this track race reallocated to Team Nigeria, a very special equipment (approved specifically for the Olympic track game) is used. It’ll take months to have it delivered after ordering and making payment. To therefore get Ese to compete, the Federation through Ese’s Club in Europe and working with a German owned Company, got a ‘Track Bike’ for our cycler Ese.”

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