Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Olympics explained

Nigeria competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, from 27 July to 12 August 2012. This was the nation's fifteenth appearance at the Olympics. Nigeria missed the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal because of the African boycott. The Nigerian Olympic Committee sent the nation's smallest delegation to the Games since 1984. A total of 53 athletes, 30 men and 23 women, competed in 8 sports. Men's basketball was the only team-based sport in which Nigeria was represented at these Olympic Games. Among the eight sports played by the athletes, Nigeria marked its official Olympic debut in slalom canoeing.

The Nigerian team featured two Olympic medalists from Beijing: taekwondo jin Chika Chukwumerije, who served as the nation's team captain,^[1] and long jumper Blessing Okagbare. Table tennis player Segun Toriola, the oldest member of the team, at age 37, became the first Nigerian athlete to compete in six Olympic games. Toriola's fellow table tennis player Olufunke Oshonaike made her fifth Olympic appearance, making her the nation's oldest and most experienced female athlete. Freestyle wrestler Sinivie Boltic was Nigeria's first male flag bearer at the opening ceremony since 2000.

Nigeria failed to win a single medal for the first time in Olympic history since 1988, after achieving poor athletic performance at these Games. Triple jumper Tosin Oke, the women's sprint relay team (led by Blessing Okagbare), and weightlifter Felix Ekpo qualified successfully for the final rounds of their respective events, but missed out of the medal standings. Following the athletes' lackluster performance, President Goodluck Jonathan "called for a complete overhaul of Nigerian sports administration". A few weeks after the Olympics, the Nigerian athletes, however, were able to recapture the nation's sporting success at the Paralympics, as they had earned a total of twelve medals, including six golds.^[2]

Athletics

See main article: Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Nigerian athletes have so far achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (up to a maximum of 3 athletes in each event at the 'A' Standard, and 1 at the 'B' Standard):^[3]

Men

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Ogho-Oghene Egwero	align=left rowspan=3	100 m	10.38	6	did not advance
Peter Emelieze	10.22	5	did not advance
Obinna Joseph Metu	10.35	5	did not advance
Noah Akwu	200 m	20.67	5	did not advance
Amaechi Morton	400 m hurdles	49.34	3 Q		did not advance
Selim Nurudeen	110 m hurdles	13.51	2 Q	13.55	5	did not advance

Field events

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Distance	Position	Distance	Position
Stanley Gbageke	Long jump	7.59	27	did not advance
Tosin Oke	Triple jump	16.83	9 q	16.95	7

Women

Track & road events

Athlete	Event	Heat		Quarterfinal		Semifinal		Final
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Seun Adigun	100 m hurdles	13.56	4	did not advance
align=left rowspan=2	Gloria Asumnu	100 m	11.13	3 Q	11.21	5	did not advance
200 m	23.43	6	did not advance
Regina George	400 m	51.24	1 Q	51.35	5	did not advance
Muizat Ajoke Odumosu	400 m hurdles	54.93	3 Q	54.40	1 Q	55.31	8
Blessing Okagbare	100 m	10.93	1 Q	10.92	1 Q	11.00	8
Omolara Omotosho	400 m	52.11	4 q	51.41	4	did not advance
Oludamola Osayomi	100 m	11.36	4	did not advance
Christy Udoh	200 m	23.19	5	did not advance
Endurance Abinuwa Gloria Asumnu Blessing Okagbare Oludamola Osayomi Christy Udoh	4 × 100 m relay	42.75	5 q	42.64	4
Bukola Abogunloko Regina George Muizat Ajoke Odumosu Omolara Omotosho Idara Otu	4 × 400 m relay	3:26.29	4 q

Field events

Athlete	Event	Qualification		Final
		Distance	Position	Distance	Position
Doreen Amata	High jump	1.90	17	did not advance
Blessing Okagbare	Long jump	6.34	17	did not advance

Combined events – Heptathlon

Athlete	Event				200 m			800 m	Final	Rank
Uhunoma Osazuwa	Result	13.46	1.77	12.77	24.62	5.74		—
Points	1056	941	712	922	771	0	—

Basketball

See main article: Basketball at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Men's tournament

See main article: Basketball at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tournament.

Roster

Group play

Boxing

See main article: Boxing at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Nigeria has so far qualified boxers for the following events^[4]

Men

Athlete	Event	Round of 32	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Muideen Olalekan Akanji	Middleweight	L 6–15	did not advance
Lukmon Olaiwola Lawal	Light heavyweight	L 7–19	did not advance

Women

Canoeing

See main article: Canoeing at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

Slalom

Nigeria has qualified boats for the following events

Table tennis

See main article: Table tennis at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Nigeria has so far qualified two men and two women.

Athlete	Event	Preliminary round	Round 1	Round 2	Round 3	Round 4	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Final /
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Quadri Aruna	align=left rowspan=2	Men's singles		W 4–2	L 2–4	did not advance
Segun Toriola	W 4–1	L 1–4	did not advance
Offiong Edem	align=left rowspan=2	Women's singles	L 2–4	did not advance
Olufunke Oshonaike	W 4–3	L 0–4	did not advance

Taekwondo

See main article: Taekwondo at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Nigeria has qualified 2 athletes.^[5]

Athlete	Event	Round of 16	Quarterfinals	Semifinals	Repechage	Bronze Medal	Final
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Isah Adam Muhammad	Men's −68 kg	L 1–13	did not advance
Chika Chukwumerije	Men's +80 kg	L 0–1	did not advance

Weightlifting

See main article: Weightlifting at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Nigeria has qualified the following quota places.

Athlete	Event	Snatch		Clean & Jerk		Total	Rank
		Result	Rank	Result	Rank
Felix Ekpo	Men's −77 kg	151	7	180	8	331	8
Mariam Usman	Women's +75 kg	129	3	160		129

Wrestling

See main article: Wrestling at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Nigeria has qualified the following quota places.

Men's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final /
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Andrew Dick	−84 kg		L 1–3	did not advance			L 0–5	Did not advance	18
Sinivie Boltic	−96 kg		L 1–3	did not advance					14

Women's freestyle

Athlete	Event	Qualification	Round of 16	Quarterfinal	Semifinal	Repechage 1	Repechage 2	Final /
		Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Opposition Result	Rank
Blessing Oborududu	−63 kg		L 0–3	did not advance					19
Amarachi Obiajunwa	−72 kg		L 0–5	did not advance					15

See also

• Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

Notes and References

1. News: Chukwumerije’s Team Nigeria Captain. Vanguard. 24 July 2012. 10 September 2012.
2. News: Nigeria's success in turning silver into gold. BBC Sport. 6 September 2012. 10 September 2012.
3. Web site: iaaf.org – Top Lists. IAAF. 27 September 2011.
4. Web site: Final African Olympic Quota Places revealed. 5 May 2012. AIBA. 5 May 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20150322065056/http://aiba.org/en-US/news/ozqsp/newsId/4729/news.aspx. 22 March 2015. dead.
5. Web site: African Qualification Tournament for 2012 London Olympics . 12 January 2012 . WTF . 12 January 2012.