Saturday 20 August 2016

Rio 2016: Nigeria Olympic kit ‘arrived too late'


Nigerian athletes in Rio received their Olympic kits only on day 13 of the Games, the BBC has learned.

Most of them had finished competing by the time the outfits arrived.

"We are disappointed and embarrassed. We've been wearing kits from the World Athletics Championships," one athlete, requesting anonymity, told the BBC.

Nigeria's men's football team has its own sponsored kit - but it has been hit by funding problems and players only arrived hours before their first match.

The team plays for bronze on Saturday against Honduras.

Africa's most populous country has so far won no medals at Rio, with only three more days of competition left to go.

Japanese plastic surgeon, Katsuya Takasu, is donating $200,000 to the football team after hearing about its financial difficulties.

The players were held up in the US city of Atlanta because of problems paying for their flight and only landed in Brazil just hours before their opening 5-4 win over Japan.


Mr Takasu has also promised each player a $10,000 bonus if they win bronze.


Culled from BBC News

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