By Victor Kanayo
A leading female cyclist Ese Ukpeseraye has emerged as the first Nigerian to qualify for the 2024 Olympics Games.
Next year’s Olympics being the 33rd edition will be held in Paris, France.
Ukpeseraye, a National Sports Festival Champion picked the ticket after she hit 250 points at the ongoing 19th Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) Road Championships in Accra, Ghana, where she won the gold medal in the Elite Women Road Race.
The Delta-born cyclist beat 47 other cyclists in the 72km race with a time of 2 hours and 36 minutes ahead of Bamago Awa of Burkina Faso and Lucie De Mrigny Lagessa of Mauritius, who picked the silver and bronze respectively.
Nigeria’s Technical Director, Cycling Federation of Nigeria, (CFN) Bashir Mohammed, who revealed this to Heritage Times HT via telephone from Accra, said the federation would give Ukpeseraye good preparations for the Olympics with the support of Nigeria’s sports ministry.
“She needs to do more races in either South Africa or Europe. We will therefore need support from the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC so that she could be sent to the World Cycling center for training to enable her race frequently to get additional points and at the same time prepare her for the big task ahead,” Mohammed said.
Mohammed who is also the Secretary General of the CAC, said Team Nigeria’s Peace Olawale and Osaretin Godwin won gold and silver respectively in the Youth Girls Road race while the Youth team also won the gold in the Team Time Trials.
Twelve Nigerian Cyclists are currently in participating in the competition which started February 8 and will shut down on Friday February 17.
The participating cyclists are Osaretin Godwin, Peace Olawale, Hikinat Sulaimon and Victoria Lawal in the Women Youth and Aishat Arogundade in the Women Junior.
The Women Elite entrants are Ese Ukpeseraye, Tombrapa Grikpa, Tawakalt Yekeen and Mary Samuel while the lone male entrant is Aka Kurotimi in the Elite category.
For the first time, Nigeria is taking part in the African Para Cycling Championships also holding in Ghana.
