By Toni Ubani

As the zero hour for Friday’s opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, approaches, the baton for the flagbearer for Team Contingent has changed hands. The new flagbearer is 96kg Freestyle Wrestler, Boltic Sinivie.

Usman Maryam of Weightlifting(+75kg) was earlier named to be the flagbearer before Team Nigeria made the changes after a meeting.

Deputy Chef de Mission, Al-Hassan Yakmut informed that the change became necessary since the coach of Maryam would not want her to be stressed at the opening ceremony.

‘’The opening ceremony is going to stretch into the morning of Saturday and Maryam will be competing soon after the ceremony. It is for strategic reasons. We don’t want to wear her out in the ceremonies. We’ve have placed our athletes at the heart of the Games”, Yakmut said.

He however said that the new flagbearer, Boltic has all the qualities to carry Nigeria’s flag at the epoch opening ceremony.

‘’Boltic is not new to events like this. He has been around and has won several medals for Nigeria at international events”, Yakmut who has been working with the precision of a General at war said.