Nigeria’s contingent to the 20th World Athletics Indoor Championships that is holding in Nanjing, China, will assemble in the United States of America to perfect its plans, Secretary-General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Israel Inwang has said. The world indoor championships in China may present Nigeria’s 4x400m men’s relay team the opportunity to write its name in gold after missing the chance at the Paris 2024 Olympics, where the team was disqualified after running a Season’s Best time of two minutes 59.81 seconds in the heat. This year’s world indoor championships will be held from March 21 to 23 at the newly-built Nanjing’s Cube Gymnasium, in the Nanjing Youth Olympic Sports Park, China. Inwang told The Guardian, yesterday, that since the majority of the athletes invited for the championships reside in the U.S., the AFN decided to allow them to perfect their training in that country under the supervision of one of their board members, a former hurdler, Victor Okorie. “It will amount to a waste of a huge amount of money bringing the athletes from their different locations in the United States to Nigeria to train for the world indoor championships,” Inwang said. “One of our board members, Victor Okorie, and some other Nigerian coaches will supervise their training over there. “The home-based athletes, who will be part of the trip to the World indoors, are also training in Nigeria. As soon as we can secure visas for them, they will depart early for China. I am sure everything will work out fine.” Eight athletes, including six members of Nigeria’s 4x400m men’s relay team, will fly the country’s flag at the 2025 World Indoor Championships in China.
