The NWF president who lamented the “preferential treatment” given to other sports stated that aside Odunayo Adekuoroye, other wrestlers would not make the Rio 2016 due to lack of funds.
Igali, who said the NWF was happy over the feat of Odunayo Adekuoroye at the just concluded Indian Pro Wrestling League, where she won all her six fights in the 53kg, scoring 59-2 points, regretted that the same thing cannot be said of the other wrestlers.
He said: “The Nigeria Wrestling Federation is very proud of how well Odunayo Adekuoroye represented the country in India. This is a good stepping-stone for the Olympics.
“Sadly, Adekuoroye is the only athlete, who has had some preparations towards the Olympics. Other wrestlers who were supposed to attend a tournament in Brazil earlier this month were sent back home due to supposed lack of funds,” he added.
Igali, who doubles as the chairman, Technical and Development Commission of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), lemented the poor funding of sports especially preparation for major championships.
“The sports authorities feel that the money that could have been used to send athletes for training in preparation for Olympics to bring glory to the country can better be used for an irrigation project.
“Imagine over N300 million spent on the Eaglets; but yet just N20 million for wrestlers was said to be too much an investment in an Olympic year! This is really sad,” he concluded.
