MINISTER of Sports Development, John Enoh, has explained why Nigerian athlete, Ese Ukpeseraye, had to ‘borrow’ a bicycle from the German team to compete at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics.
Ukpeseraye had on Thursday via X revealed that due to short notice, she could not get a bicycle and was almost at the risk of not participating but for the intervention of the German track team, who helped her with a bike.
“Due to the short notice of me competing at the Keirin & Sprint, #teamNigeria I had no bicycle to race with on the tracks. In the spirit of sportsmanship, the German team @bunddeutscherradfahr came to my rescue by offering me a bicycle. Thank you,” she wrote.
The post elicited anger from Nigerians.
Reacting, Enoh, in a statement published on X, said the track race was reallocated to Team Nigeria after a team was disqualified and that it would need the usage of special equipment which, if paid for, would take months to be delivered.
He wrote, “My attention has been called to a post on social media by Ese Ukpeseraye. After reading the post and some follow-up comments, I swung into action. Ese’s post seems to have been grossly misunderstood perhaps also because it didn’t seem to give proper context to the matter in perspective. It is important that I make some clarifications.
Abinitio, Team Nigeria qualified for one road race in cycling and prepared for it in terms of training and the appropriate competition equipment. Team Nigeria was fully prepared for this road race until two weeks ago, after the Cycling team with the rest of Team Nigeria had already left for the Olympics, when a communication from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) was received reallocating additional slots to the Cyclist Federation of Nigeria (Kerin and individual sprint).
“This reallocation to Nigeria was due to the disqualification of a country, leaving Nigeria as the next eligible to make the list of qualified countries to compete. Unfortunately, this additional slot required the use of different competition equipment in terms of biking,” he stated.
According to the sports minister, to get Ese to compete, the federation through Ese’s Club in Europe, and working with a German-owned company, got a ‘Track Bike’ for the cyclist.
“For this track race reallocated to Team Nigeria, a very special equipment (approved specifically for the Olympic track game) is used. It’ll take months to have it delivered after ordering and making payment. To therefore get Ese to compete, the Federation through Ese’s Club in Europe and working with a German owned Company, got a ‘Track Bike’ for our cycler Ese.”
