Olopade: Amusan, Ofili, other top ranked Nigerian athletes to fly business class

The Director General of the National Sports Commission, Bukola Olopade says all Nigerian athletes who get ranked in Category A by the Yusuf Ali-led Elite and Podium Board will henceforth fly business class to all international competitions.

Olopade made this declaration when he met Secretary Generals of the Sports Federations in Abuja on Tuesday.

‘All our top athletes in Category A of the Podium Board rankings will no longer fly anything less than a business class for international Competitions. No more jamboree travelling but we must scientifically look at the way we run our Sports for high performance results,’ Olopade said at the meeting.

Some of the athletes likely to enjoy this privilege will include reigning Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles champion and World record holder, Tobi Amusan, Paris 2024 Olympics 200m finalist, Favour ofili, Shot Putter, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi and Ese Brume, the World indoor, outdoor, Commonwealth Games and Olympics medalist.

Olopade stressed that ‘the welfare of Nigerian athletes is of utmost importance to the Commission and that is why we established the Elite and Podium board which we have started seeing their work in the area of grading our top athletes for different categories of Training Grants”.

The next international competition for Nigerian athletes is the World Relays in China next month and it is not sure if the ‘fly business class’ policy will start with the competition.