Akinkunle Bolarinwa
The chances of pugilists participating at next year's Paris Olympics is in jeopardy due to paucity of funds.
The vice president of the Nigeria Boxing Federation, Azania Omo-Agege stated that the federation has been plagued with shortage of funds.
"Most of the competitions we didn't go to are due to lack of funding but let see how it will be".
He stated further that the federation has done its best to collaborate with the sports ministry.
"They are thinking of cutting our budget by 45 percent and they are still working on it".
Under the IOC’s boxing qualification model, the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, Kraków-Małopolska 2023 European Games, Solomon Islands 2023 Pacific Games and the delayed Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games are set to be used as qualifiers.
The Accra 2024 All African Games are also expected to become a qualification event, although an agreement has yet to be made between the IOC and the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa.
Following the continental phase, the IOC plans to stage two world qualification tournaments in 2024 where the remaining quota places will be determined before the Olympics are staged in Paris.
After the continental phase of quota place allocation, two world qualification tournaments are planned to be held in 2024, giving the boxers from all regions a chance to try and secure their berths in Paris
The last African qualifiers 2020 before the Tokyo Olympic, was held in Dakar, Senegal – which Nigeria didn’t even attend.
If the country fails to produce any representatives for the Games then this will be the second time since the 1960 Olympics in Rome that Nigeria failed to field a boxer for the Games, except the 1976 edition, which was boycotted by the country.
Nigeria was represented by one boxer (Efe Ajagba) at the 2016 Games in Rio.
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