IOC announces new date for non-completed Tokyo 2020 Olympics qualifiers
TNdidi
he suffocating suspense that gripped athletes around the world over the remaining qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has ended as the International Olympics Committee, IOC, has announced new date for conclusion of the qualifying events.
It will be recalled that following the outbreak of the coronavirus which has dealt sports devastating blows, the host country Japan and the IOC announced the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics to 2021.
Consequently, the postponement of the Tokyo Olympics by a year had cast a shadow of doubt over most of the qualifiers that were yet to be completed.
The uncertainty is now over as the IOC in a letter to all members of the International Olympic committee stated that non completed qualifiers have now been extended till the end of June 2021, a week grace before the final deadline of July 5th, 18 days before the Olympics gets underway on July 23rd, 2021.
The international sports body said “We understand at these times that these are unlikely to include full details of the dates and locations of the specified events. We recognise that this would follow later as the impacts of the Covid-19 and its related restrictions become clearer," the letter stated.
It will be recalled that Fifty seven percent of the 11,000 athletes that would be participating at the Tokyo Olympics had qualified before the event was moved by a year due to the pandemic.
The IOC said it would finalize the adapted qualification system later in the month.
Meanwhile, the minister of sports, Sunday Dare has commended the IOC for acting timely to end the uncertainty.
He also said fixing new date for conclusion of the remaining qualifiers is a welcome development.
“We are excited that the IOC has granted this concession so that those qualifiers can be completed. This will give the athletes ample time to prepare.
“Furthermore, we now have enough time to make funds available to those sports federations that had yet to complete their qualifiers.
“We are monitoring all our athletes and we believe they are training well despite the worldwide lockdown.”
Dare also assured that Nigeria would stick to the earlier decision to feature in only 11 events at the games in order to enhance her chances of performing well.