Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye, a Nigerian cyclist who recently represented the country at the Paris Olympics, has revealed that athletes in the country are denied access to sports facilities including the Abuja velodrome in the country for training by the relevant authorities.
The cyclist who spoke after the global sporting event said her country has one of the best facilities for cycling but it is always being rented out for religious events by sports administrators in the country.
Ukpeseraye emphasised that the continued misuse of the velodrome would lead to the extinction of cycling in Nigeria because of the lack of opportunities to train.
She said: “We have a very beautiful track; our track is the best in Africa, but we don’t use it. They don’t permit us to use it.
“One of the most expensive sports venues in the world is in Nigeria, which has a beautiful wooden velodrome.
“But since it’s rented out for religious services and other activities for most of the year, bikers are not permitted to train there,” she told cyclingnews.com
Eze Ukpesereye had earlier revealed that she borrowed a bike to compete at the Keirin Sprint event in the ongoing Olympics via her post on X.
This situation generated backlashes from Nigerians who accused those in authority of incompetence.
But in a long statement issued on X, the Minister of Sports Development, Senator John said Ese was misunderstood.
He had written, “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 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, that 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 a different competition equipment in terms of biking.”
Diaspora Digital Media had earlier published a review of how dismally Team Nigeria performed the Games.