Shame! No Nigerian in African Hall of Fame?
Oh what a shame! whatever happened to Nigerian Athletics stars of the 80s and 90s.
I was reading through the list of inductees to the 1st ever Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) Athletes Hall of fame and to my shock there was no Nigerian on the list.
There were many worthy athletes that have done Africa proud in the past, those with outstanding achievements - Olympic, World and African titles - on the list, but you also have athletes with barely any known achievements on the continent inducted.
It will interest me greatly to know the criteria CAA had used to select the list of thirty-five (35) great African athletes of our generation without the inclusion of long time African 100m champion in the late 80s and early 90s, Chidi Imoh, African queen of the track, and Olympic 200m bronze medallist Mary Onyali, Olympic 400m silver medallist Falilat Ogunkoya or Olapade Adeniken. These are athletes who dominated the All African Games for many years and won laurels for Africa at the World cup.
I know former Olympic Long Jump Champion Chioma Ajunwa's name was mentioned in the press a couple of months back as a potential inductee, but even her name was missing. Ajunwa's case is understandable, taken into consideration her ban for drug use in the past, so her omission is a legitimate one, but what of others?
So what's the criteria for selecting an African Athletes Hall of Fame? World and Olympics gold medals won or contributions to the continent in terms of performance at the All African Games and African Athletics Championships?
Over to you, let's know what you think?
I was reading through the list of inductees to the 1st ever Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) Athletes Hall of fame and to my shock there was no Nigerian on the list.
There were many worthy athletes that have done Africa proud in the past, those with outstanding achievements - Olympic, World and African titles - on the list, but you also have athletes with barely any known achievements on the continent inducted.
It will interest me greatly to know the criteria CAA had used to select the list of thirty-five (35) great African athletes of our generation without the inclusion of long time African 100m champion in the late 80s and early 90s, Chidi Imoh, African queen of the track, and Olympic 200m bronze medallist Mary Onyali, Olympic 400m silver medallist Falilat Ogunkoya or Olapade Adeniken. These are athletes who dominated the All African Games for many years and won laurels for Africa at the World cup.
I know former Olympic Long Jump Champion Chioma Ajunwa's name was mentioned in the press a couple of months back as a potential inductee, but even her name was missing. Ajunwa's case is understandable, taken into consideration her ban for drug use in the past, so her omission is a legitimate one, but what of others?
So what's the criteria for selecting an African Athletes Hall of Fame? World and Olympics gold medals won or contributions to the continent in terms of performance at the All African Games and African Athletics Championships?
Over to you, let's know what you think?
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