Nigerian Athletes Are Not Permitted To Train In Velodrome Because It Is Rented Out For Religious Services – Cyclist, Eze Ukpeseraye

A Nigerian cyclist who recently represented the country at the Paris Olympics, Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye, has claimed that Nigeria is always renting out its cycling facility for religious events.

Ukpeseraye, who had to borrow a bike from Germany to participate in one of the competitions at the Olympics, explained that her country has one of the best facilities for cycling but it is always being rented out for religious events by sports administrators in the country.

She made the claim while speaking to cyclingnews.com.

Ukpeseraye emphasised that the continued misuse of the velodrome would lead to the extinction of cycling in Nigeria because of the lack of opportunities to train.

She said: “We have a very beautiful track; our track is the best in Africa, but we don’t use it. They don’t permit us to use it.

“One of the most expensive sports venues in the world is in Nigeria, which has a beautiful wooden velodrome. But since it’s rented out for religious services and other activities for most of the year, bikers are not permitted to train there.” 

The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh had earlier stated that the reason Ukpeseraye borrowed a bike during the Olympics was because Team Nigeria was not expected to participate in the particular race; hence no prior preparation was made ahead of the games.

He had said, “My attention has been called to a post on social media by Ese Ukpeseraye. After reading the post and some follow up comments I swung into action.

“Ese’s post seems to have been grossly misunderstood, perhaps also because it didn’t seem to give proper context to the matter in perspective. It is important I make some clarifications.

“Abinitio, Team Nigeria qualified for one road race in cycling and prepared for it in terms of training and the appropriate competition equipment. Team Nigeria was fully prepared for this road race until two weeks ago after the Cycling team with the rest of Team Nigeria had already left for the Olympics, that a communication from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) was received reallocating additional slots to the Cyclist Federation of Nigeria (Kerin and individual sprint).

“This reallocation to Nigeria was due to the disqualification of a country, leaving Nigeria as the next eligible to make the list of qualified countries to compete. Unfortunately, this additional slot required the use of a different competition equipment in terms of biking.”