‘Why leave out Ofili who split 10.09 in 4x100m,’ Dennis Shaver’s unanswered question after unfortunate incident at Paris 2024 Olympics

‘Favour 10.09 split on 4×100 relay yet NOT worth Nigerian Olympic Committee to enter her in the 100-meter event!! GEEZ!!!. Second fastest second leg split of all teams!,’ that was Dennis Shaver’s remark after the Nigerian ran an incredible 4x100m relay second leg at the Paris 2024 Olympics after running three rounds in the 200m event days earlier.

Shaver was coach of Favour Ofili while she was a student-athlete at the Louisiana State University and brought the Nigerian to the Paris 2024 Olympics as her coach.

Ofili was cruelly and wickedly left out of the 100m event at the Games despite the 21 year old fulfilling al the conditions set by both World Athletics, including meeting the entry standard and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria.

The Nigerian showed glimpses of what would have happened in Paris early in the outdoor season when she ran a wind-aided 10.85 in March with a 2.6m/s tail wind and another wind aided 10.78 nearly a month later with a very marginal 2.2m/s tail win.

Ofili proceeded to the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas to split 10.10 in the second leg of the 4x100m to secure Nigeria’s place in the relay event at the Paris Olympics.

Athletics officials, especially those saddled with the responsibility of getting her registered for the event she told them in unmistaken terms that she would participate in, did not know how her name was not registered for the event.

While the Technical Director of the AFN claimed he got a ‘hint’ and heard the ‘rumour’ of Ofili’s non-registration for the 100m event but failed to raise the alarm which could have opened a way to get her registered with the final delegates registration meeting holding two days after he got the hint, the Secretary General turned herself into a coach and told a NOC official she did not think Ofili could combine the 100m, 200m and the relay events together when there are athletes who have won gold in three/four sprint events at the Olympics.

Three years earlier, precisely at the Tokyo 2020 (2021) Olympics, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah successfully completed a sprints double before running the second leg to help her nation to a 4x100m gold at the Games.

The Investigative Committee set up by the then Sports Minister, John Owan Enoh could not identify the real culprit in the Ofiligate but indicted two AFN officials for negligence and poor judgement.