Sports

Hours to Olympic match Presidency rescues stranded U-23 Eagles

Published

8 years ago

August 4, 2016

But for the timely intervention of the Presidency, Nigeria U-23 Eagles would have missed out of their first match of the Rio Olympics against Japan by 2am early Friday morning.

The team’s departure from their training base in Atlanta has been called off four times with the last cancellation being on Wednesday after players and officials were ordered back from the airport.

The U-23 Eagles again headed for the airport for their chartered flight but were told that Nigeria had not paid.

But the Presidency made last minute arrangement to dispatch a Presidential Jet to airlift the team from Atlanta to Manaus in Brazil.

The 35-man squad is expected to fly out today (Thursday) by 8am Atlanta time, which is about 1pm Nigerian time and will fly directly to Manaus on a chartered flight with flight time estimated at eight hours.

The Samson Saisia tutored side is expected to arrive at their venue for their opening match against Japan barely hours before the big kick-off.

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