By Ime Bassey
The Nigerian Weightlifting Federation (NWF) has been deprived of the three slots it won to compete in the 2012 Olympics in London next year at the just concluded World Weightlifting Championship held at the Disneyland in Paris, France.

Making this known to  Vanguard Sports, President of the federation, Chimdi Ejiogu revealed that the country lost her slots for not competing in the last world championship which took place in Istanbul, Turkey. “We won three slots at the just concluded World Weightlifting Championship but the slots were canceled having not contested in last year’s World Championship held Istanbul, Turkey,” Ejiogu revealed.

Explaining the reason for the federations’ non participation, he said, “This was caused by a mix-up in the Ministry of Sports last year as they thought that only one qualifier will be needed for the Games, not knowing that it was an aggregate of a series of qualifiers”

On the next line of action which is the Africa qualifiers scheduled to hold in Kampala, Uganda, he said, “We have put it behind us and are forging ahead to prepare for the African qualifiers billed for Kampala Uganda in March next year. Now we can only get just two slots from this qualifiers as that is what is obtainable,” Ejiogu added.