Nigeria changes gear, says it can no longer host Africa Athletics Championships

Nigeria has reversed itself on the decision to host the Africa Athletics Championships which it had agreed to host between 23 and 27 June after Algeria stepped down as preferred host due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It would be recalled that last week, the Minister of Youth and Sports, Sunday Dare had agreed to step in to host the event in Lagos to replace Algeria which had excused itself after it request for a postponement due to the COVID-19 pandemic was rejected by the Confederation of African Athletic

According to a BBC World report on Thursday, the latest decision by Nigeria, leaves the future of the athletics showpiece in doubt for this year despite Algeria insisting it is still willing to host the event later this year, coronavirus permitting.

The Confederation of African Athletics had hoped that with Nigeria hosting the championships it would give athletes the chance to achieve qualifying standards for the Tokyo Olympics ahead of the 29 June deadline.

It is yet another problem to hit the biennial event which should have taken place in 2020 before being postponed by a year due to Covid-19.

The plan was then to hold the championships in the Algerian city of Oran between the 1st and 5th June 2021 before it was then moved to Algiers and set to take place 22-26 June.