COVID-19: NOC to benefit from ANOC’s $11.65m package

Monica Iheakam

The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) will be among the beneficiaries of the $11.65m COVID-19 funding packages to be released by the Association of National Olympic Committees (ANOC) for member nations.

Rising from their Technical Working Group meeting which included representatives from member countries and the continental associations, ANOC agreed that all the 206 members will benefit from the largesse.

According to ANOC, the funding is geared towards helping all the countries preparing for the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

“We are committed to helping NOCs and their athletes prepare for Tokyo 2020 by providing additional funding that will assist NOCs with the exceptional costs associated with the delay of the Games,” said ANOC’s Acting President, Robin Mitchell.

Earlier this year, the Minster of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare had announced that Team Nigeria will participate in 11 sports as against the 22 that the team took part in at the last Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.

The sports minister said that his decision to cut on the number of sports to be featured at the Tokyo 2020 games, is to ensure that resources are channeled where Team Nigeria has comparative advantage.

Meanwhile, Team Nigeria has qualified for at least 10 events for Tokyo 2020 Games Some of the athletes who have qualified are Ese Brume (Women’s long jump), Amusan Tobi (Women’s 100m hurdle) Blessing Okagbare (Women’s 100m/200m) Divine Oduduru (Men’s 100m/200m),. Raymond Okevwo (Men’s 100m) and Utseorise Itsekiri (Men’s 100m).

Others are Chukwuemeka Enekechi (Men’s shot put) Adekuroye Odunayo (57kg Women’s Weightlifting) D’Tigers, (Men’s basketball), D’ Tigress (Women’s basketball ) Bello Ayomide (Women’s C1 canoe) Toko Esther (Women’s single sculls) and Elizabeth Ayanacho ( Women’s Taekwondo).

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics was rescheduled to July 23 to August 8 2021, followed by the Paralympics from August 24 to September 5 2021.