By Ben Efe 25-5-2025
Ashe Favour a professional athlete cried sabotage after he was disqualified from running the men’s 100m final of the National Sports Festival on going in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Watching Spectators at MKO Abiola Stadium were surprised to find out that
Ashe, representing Team Delta, would not run the final because he failed to wear his bib number back and front. According to the rules an athlete must wear his bib back and front.
But Ashe Favour had only one bib and officials threw him out of the Gateway Games.
He said later that someone took one the bibs insisting it was an act of sabotage.
“The problem started even before the semifinal, when I discovered that one of my bibs had suddenly disappeared from my bag,” he said.
“But I explained the situation to the officials at the starter’s blocks, and they allowed me to run. Even after I qualified for the final, I kept searching everywhere for the second bib, but I couldn’t find it. I am sure someone deliberately took it from my bag just to create a problem for me.”
Ashe Favour said he made his plight known to the technical officials and they encouraged him to run the semi-final only to disqualify him.
“Even the Technical Director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) cleared me to run the race.
“But suddenly, they turned around and disqualified me. I felt so humiliated and disappointed. I did not do anything wrong. As I said, I was a target of some people, but my God will fight for me. It is not the end of the world. All I want to tell Nigerians is that my disqualification in the 100m race after I laboured to get to the final was a planned work. It was painful.”
However, Ashe Favour’s version of the narrative was disputed by officials. An official told the Guardian they gave him ample time to resolve the issue, but it seems he was bent on riding his luck.
“We used delayed tactics so that Ashe could provide the bib or alternative measure allowed for him to run,” the official said.
“But just when he was about to run, the National Sports Festival DG came down and asked him directly:
“Whose fault?’ Ashe admitted, ‘It’s my fault.’ Then Olopade said, ‘If it is your fault, then disqualify him.’ Some people might see that as interference, but to me, Olopade being the chairman of the Main Organising Committee, tried to save Ashe. It seems”
Ashe was tensed up already and decided to own up. Nobody should blame Olopade because I witnessed everything.”