Nigeria's backdoor entry into Beijing relays
A friend of mine said last week that 'God is a Nigerian'. Well, I'm tempted to believed him now as Nigeria has miraculously found her way into the women's 4x100m relay event at the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, China, even after all reasonable hopes were lost. When the relay teams to the Games of XXIX Olympiad, Beijing 2008, were announced by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) on Monday 21 July, Nigeria was in 18th position in the women’s 4 x100m qualification standings. However, today one qualified nation , Finland pulled out and Nigeria moved up to the 16th - Cuba (originally 16th) had earlier declined their invitation for the women’s 4 x100m and was replaced by Thailand, originally 17th - and final placing and will now compete in Beijing. Last week, Nigeria's last ditched and ill advised efforts at muscling the International Olympics Committee (IOC) to field a women's 4x100m team in Beijing was thrown out after the IAAF argued that the...