Paralympic athletes storm Abuja for Tokyo Olympic tickets

After breaking many world records at Rio 2016 Olympics Games, Paralympic athletes from different parts of the country yesterday stormed Abuja in search of tickets to Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Nigeria made its Paralympic Games debut at Barcelona ‘92 Summer Paralympics with a delegation of six male athletes to compete in track and field. But the country’s biggest medals’ haul came at Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, where Team Nigeria won eight gold medals, more than any other African country.

With all attention now on Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Paralympic athletes from various states of the federation want to be part of the party later in the later.

The Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Brown Ebewele, who is in Abuja to monitor the athletes, told The Guardian yesterday that Nigeria needs to present a stronger team to this year’s summer Games.

“The stake is higher now after the superlative performance by our Paralympic athletes at Rio 2016. The AFN has to be involved at this stage so that Nigeria can have a stronger team in Tokyo,” he stated.Ebewele revealed that yesterday’s activities began with a doping seminar at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja. The Classification of the athletes also began yesterday.

“The main event will hold tomorrow (today), and the athletes are very excited. As I said earlier, our interest in the AFN is to get the best athletes who are medal prospects in Tokyo,” Ebewele stated.The Guardian recalls that since their debut at Barcelona ’92 Games, Nigerian Paralympic athletes have not returned empty handed from any Olympics unlike the able body male and female athletes who participated just to make up the numbers.