By Francis Ajuonuma
After a total lockdown witnessed across countries of the world in the whole of 2020, due to the outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic that ravaged the world, recording several deaths and leading to cancellations of sporting events, 2021 will however witness a rebirth of sporting activities across the globe.

The year 2021 which is in review witnessed the return of sporting activities globally with fans or spectators allowed into venues for the first time in many months to watch games or events. The year witnessed the staging of the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, though fans were not allowed into the venues except participating athletes who acted as fans of their various countries.

Apart from the Olympic Games which Nigeria also featured, the year saw, the staging of the FIBA Men’s Afrobasket Championship in Rwanda and FIBA Women’s Afrobasket championship in Yaounde, Cameroon, 2021 IWF World Championships and Commonwealth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, heavyweight boxing clash between Anthony Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk, Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), African Senior Nations Volleyball Championship, club Continental football, U-20 World Athletics Championships in Kenya and the staging of the 2020 National Sports Festival in Edo State after several months of postponements and host of others.

However, Nigeria’s participation in these events recorded several ups and downs with some attracting commendations, while others received condemnations, hence the review of how Nigerian sports fared in 2021 will be categorised as the good and the ugly.

The good

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Nigeria had an impressive outing at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Japan, held from August 24 to September 5, 2021. It was a performance seen in many quarters as a face-saving grace for Nigeria’s disappointing outing at the Olympic Games for the able body athletes. Team Nigeria returned from the Paralympic games with a total of 10 medals made up of four gold, one silver, and five bronze medals to place 33rd in the world and fourth-best in Africa.

Folashade Oluwafemiayo was Nigeria’s shining light at the games as she set a new world record with her power lift of 152kg against her previous world record of 151kg which she did on March 28, 2021, in Manchester. The other three powerlifters that wrote their names in gold in Japan include, Tijani Latifat, Bose Omolayo, and Flora Ugunnwa and Team Nigeria’s Chief de Mission at the games, Peter Nelson, described the country’s outing thus: “It is awesome and quite remarkable what we have achieved at this Paralympic Games.

Another big plus for Nigerian sports was the triumphant outing of the national women’s basketball team, D’ Tigress in Yaounde, Cameroon where they conquered all comers to retain the FIBA Women’s Afrobasket Championship. Also, the national team to the World Athletics U-20 Championships in Kenya gave Nigerians a lot to cheer about and the hope that the future is very bright for athletics in Nigeria. Parading a very young team, Nigeria came back with four gold and three bronze medals to place third behind Kenya and Finland. While Kenya won eight gold, one silver, and seven bronze medals to finish top on the log, Finland with four gold and one silver took the second position at the meet that featured 116 Nations.

It was also the year Nigerian Mixed Martial Art fighters- Kamaru Usman ( Welterweight) and Israel Adesanya (middleweight) flew the country’s flag high as they dominated the world in the Ultimate Fighting Championship recording victories after victory, especially Kamaru Usman, who successful and overwhelmingly defended his world title three times against United States’ Colby Covington, Jorge Masvidal, and Brazil’s Gilbert Burns.

While Adesanya defended his middleweight title once and it was against Marvin Vettori of Italy with an overwhelming unanimous point’s decision, his attempt at the heavyweight was unsuccessful as he lost to the champion, Jan Blachowicz of Poland on unanimous points.

Nigeria’s sports achievement for the year will be incomplete without noting the success recorded by the Super Eagles in the African continent as they successfully qualified for the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon with a match still to spare in Group L that also featured Sierra Leone, Benin Republic, and Lesotho.

The three-time African Champions went a step further with their progress into the final round of the African qualifiers for the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup despite most Nigerians not believing in the coaching quality of the manager, Gernot Rohr, who was later sacked in December and was replaced with the appointment of former Venezuela coach, Jose Peseiro.

Another big success recorded by Nigeria in the year in review was the impressive outing of Nigerian weightlifters at the 2021 IWF World Championships and Commonwealth Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where they came back with nine medals; four gold medals from the Commonwealth Championships, while two silver and three bronze medals were from the World Championships and this feat was achieved by just seven weightlifters (five women and two men).

One other huge success recorded in Nigerian sports under the period was the successful staging of the National Sports Festival (NSF) in Edo which hitherto had suffered several postponements. Being the biggest sports fiesta in the country, its successful hosting by Edo State came to the sports ministry as a huge relief to the federal government because of its’ importance in the development of sports in the country.

The Ugly

However, there were dark moments for Nigerian sports in the period under review and one of such moments was the dismal performance of Nigeria at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan as the country could only manage a silver from Blessing Oborududu in amateur wrestling and bronze from Ese Brume in the long jump. The most embarrassing moment came with the disqualification of 10 Nigerian athletes from their event for failure to undergo mandatory tests ahead of the games. And as if that was not enough, the country was given another sucker punch with the disqualification of medal prospect, Blessing Okagbare, who had already qualified for the women’s 100 metres semi-finals for an alleged doping offence.

Also, the home defeat the Super Eagles suffered at home to less fancied the Central Africa Republic was another dark moment for Nigerian sports. It brought a huge embarrassment to the country, forcing Nigerians to call for the head of Coach Gernot Rohr and it eventually led to his sack last December. The disappointing outing of the national team, D’ Tigers at the FIBA Men’s Afrobasket Championship in Rwanda was shocking too to most Nigerians after the team which had been tipped as title favourites could only struggle to finish 12th in the 16 teams’ championship.

The year also witnessed the demise of nine Nigerian sportsmen who one time or the other served the country as either coach or as athletes. (Joe Erico, Yisa Shofoluwe, Barnabas Imager, Bello Oyebanji, Kashimawo Laloko, Adamu Ejo, Paul Kehinde, Thompson Usiyan and Brown Ebewele)

Reflecting on the country’s sports in 2021, the National Chairman of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Rev. Sam Ikpea believes that Nigerian sports in the period under review did not perform poorly, noting that there were a lot of positives recorded too despite some challenges faced by the country due to the Covid-19 crisis.

“Well, so far so good it has not been bad. We had our trying time, the Covid-19 problems, but we thank God that it has been fair enough. At least we’re able to win some gold, even if it’s disabled sports. We’re able to qualify for the Nations Cup and there are other sporting activities I think we did well also. So, I want to say it has been fair so far.”

Another sports administrator, Femi Abioye was of the view that though Nigerian sports struggled in the period under review, there are still signs of good things ahead as all hope is not lost.

“Competitions during the year have been ups and downs. We had a very shambolic National Sports Festival. We had a lot of issues at the Olympics but it’s not all that bad. We have somebody that is very inspiring in Aruna Quadri, who has taken African table tennis to a new height by reaching the quarterfinals in a world championship and he is now Africa number one. We also have the likes of our canoeists at the Olympics coming from the programme of the rowing and yachting federation. The weightlifting federation also did well, and our Paralympians have continued to give us joy, so if you ask me to rate Nigerian sports in 2021 will score it fairly.

Kelvin Duru, a sports enthusiast, believes that despite the flop at the Olympics Nigerian sports in 2021 deserves some commendation, attributing the disappointing outing at the Olympics to the covid-19 pandemic which he said disrupted the training programme of Team Nigeria.

Apart from the Olympics, I think in other sports we did well. Our Paralympians did well, also our Super Eagles qualified for the Nations cup, while our women’s basketball team retained the FIBA Afrobasket Championship, so we did well. Even at the Olympics we still have two medals to show, and I want to believe that if not for the covid-19 crisis we would have done better.