For what seemed like a shock to many Nigerians, Nigeria failed to present a boxer to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and this has fueled many sad faces to in the boxing federation.
Jeremiah Okorodudu, a former Olympian expressed his disappointment at the absence of Boxers at the Olympics in an interview with Sports247.
“It makes me feel sad because this is the first time Nigeria won’t be participating in the boxing event of the Olympics and it’s not good at all,” Jeremiah told Sports247.
Asked what the future holds and what the country is doing to avoid such from happening he said “we’re doing nothing”. “The only thing we can do right now is that those who failed to qualify for the Olympics, we begin to train them as we’re currently training boxers for the future and in the next three years we should have a formidable team of boxer who will go to the ring and be proud to be representing Nigeria,” Jeremiah added.
Jeremiah also said “it’s not done to allow a woman to lead the boxing team to the qualifiers be it as a coach or captain, it’s not done anywhere,” he added as regard the athletes being led to the qualifiers by a woman which he felt was wrong.
“Personally, I’m getting boys together and teaching them the game, the rudiments of boxing, letting them know why we box as they are not meant to train and end up on the streets but rather train to become world champions and that’s what I’m doing to ensure we have quality boxers to represent this country,” Jeremiah concluded.
