By Ben Efe
Athletics Federation of Nigeria will hold its national trials from July 7-9 in Sapele Delta State, after a not so pleasant outing posted by Nigerian athletes at the CAA African Championships in Durban, South Africa.

There were strong indications that the national championships may not hold due to paucity of funds. But AFN president, Solomon Ogba disclosed yesterday in Lagos that it became necessary in the wake of the poor run of form exhibited by some of the athletes in South Africa.

File photo: Athletes

“Despite the financial constraints we are facing, we have decided to hold the national trials. We thought that we could pick our team based on their current performances, but what we saw in South Africa made us to have a rethink.

“Besides we are having the CAA relay meet and we thought that we should make use of the opportunity to pick our Olympic relays team and make them run for qualification time. South Africa, Ghana and Botswana who are all chasing time are coming for the meet,” Ogba said.

He revealed that Nigeria did not put her best foot forward in the African championships.

“The team we presented in South Africa wasn’t our best team. There was no money for us to pay for visa or even buy tickets, as we are talking we still haven’t got any money.

“ Most of the USA based athletes who came to SA used their American passports. It was the reason Blessing Okagbare couldn’t make it. She holds a Nigerian passport, which required visa.

“Our athletes shouldn’t be blamed for the débâcle. We didn’t want to go in the first place, but we decided to be there for two reasons. First we are hosting the next edition in 2018 and secondly we wanted to see the current form of some of the athletes we have pencilled down for the Olympics.”