Favour Ofili: A Look at Her Achievements Amid Paris 2024 Disappointment
- Favour Ofili is one of the most promising athletes Nigeria has at the 2024 Olympics games in Paris, France
- The Louisiana State University graduate was poised to represent Nigeria in three sprint events from August 1
- Legit.ng looks at the milestones the 21-year-old has achieved even as her Olympic dreams are dashed yet again
Qualifying and competing at the Olympics is usually the dream of any athlete. Finishing on the podium is often an added advantage, but even qualifying, in itself, deserves some plaudits.
For Favour Ofili, she thought that 2024 would be the year she would finally make her debut at the games. She will, but not in every discipline she had prepared for.
Source: Getty Images
Why Favour Ofili won't compete in 100m at Paris 2024
It is one thing to fail to hit the qualification mark, and it is another thing to qualify but fail to get registered before the deadlines. Ofili took to social media to painfully explain how she had been informed that she wouldn't participate in the women's 100m.
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Unlike in 2020, when she was banned entirely—for yet another case of incompetence by the authorities—she will have the chance to compete in the 200m and the 4 by 100m relays. It is a case of the glass being half full, but it doesn't make the fact that she won't run in the 100m any better.
Favour Ofili's list of achievements
Who is Favour Ofili? As Legit.ng delves into it, the 21-year-old is a talented sprinter born in Port Harcourt. She started her career in the 400m, where she won silver at the 2019 African Games held in Rabat, Morocco. She then followed that up with gold in the 4 by 400m relays in the same event.
A year before the Rabat Games, she won two gold medals in the 400m and 200m at the Africa Youth Championships in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in addition to the one she had won in Algiers in 2018.
Ofili was declared the best female athlete of the meet in the 2019 Games.
Her performances in Abidjan saw her qualify for the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, where she reached the semi-finals as the youngest athlete.
Louisiana State University scholarship
The rising star would later earn a scholarship at Louisiana State University, a reputable college for track and field stars in Baton Rouge, America.
Ofili added three medals to her growing CV when she won two bronze (200m and 4 by 100m relay) and gold (4 by 400m) at the world U-20 Championships held in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Nigerian would undergo a slight change in her preferred disciplines. She started to run more 100m and 200m. She ran at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, where she narrowly missed out on a podium place in the 4 by 100m relay.
Ofili's medal haul at 2022 Commonwealth Games
Ofili would correct that a few days later at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, where she finished second in the 200m behind the fastest woman alive, Elaine Thompson-Herah. The Nigerian relay team also set a new area record as they stormed to victory in the 4 by 100m.
She didn't perform satisfactorily at the World Championships in Budapest last year or the African Championships last month.
That notwithstanding, her achievements as a 21-year-old have proven that she is a star and deserved a chance to participate in all the events she had trained for the Paris Olympics.
How this setback affects her remains to be seen when she takes to the track on August 4 for round one of the women's 200m.
Usheoritse Itsekiri's journey to Paris 2024
Legit.ng earlier reported on the Nigerian electrical engineer chasing Olympic glory in Paris.
Usheoritse Itsekiri will compete in the men's 4 by 100m relay months after winning the Africa title in Accra, Ghana.
The Nigerian athletics team has been training in Germany in the build-up to the event.
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Source: Legit.ng
