Sports Ministry to foot medical bills of injured Adegoke, Amusan, two others

The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development will be footing the medical bills of Enoch Adegoke, Tobi Amusan and two other Nigerian athletes who competed at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

The Ministry made the announcement before the weekend, noting that the four track and field athletes two of whom represented the country with injuries, will have their bills taken care of.

Recall that Adegoke was stopped 40 metres into the 100m final due to a harmstring trouble while Amusan, who placed fourth in the 100m hurdles came to Tokyo with an injury.

Ushoritse Itshekiri is another athlete to benefit from the Ministry’s gesture. He had pulled his harmstring in the semifinal of the 100m men’s race.

Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who made history as the first Nigerian, man or woman to compete in the final of the Shot Put event at the Olympics, will also be treated.

Read Also: Injury stops impressive Adegoke as Italy’s Jacobs wins 100m Olympic gold

Minister Sunday Dare made the pledge during the reception for Team Nigeria hosted by Nigeria’s Ambassador to Japan in Tokyo.

“You have represented Nigeria well and made sacrifices. Nigeria will also take care of you in your time of need so that you can regain full health,” said Dare.

The athletes are expected to make their submissions with necessary medical details to fast track the processing of the financial support.

Meanwhile, the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics saw Nigeria’s best performance at the Games in 13 years.

The team won two medals, the most since 2008, and also recorded a number of historic feats and encouraging performances.

Blessing Oborodudu won a silver medal in the 68kg category of women’s wrestling while sprinter Ese Brume won a bronze medal in women’s long jump event.

Also, as many as 49 out of the 60 athletes that dorned Nigeria’s green and white colours made their debut at the games with over 30 of the contingent were under the age of 26.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now