By NewsBits
Delta State born athlete Ese Ukpeseraye, who by dint of hardwork shot herself into record books as the first ever Nigerian cyclist to qualify for the Olympics, is deservedly over the moon for this achievement.
Ukpeseraye spoke from her competition ground in Accra, Ghana, who won a total of eight gold medals at the last National Sports Festival, which incidentally Delta State hosted in December 2022 for the first time, said she is so excited picking a ticket to represent Nigeria at the Olympics and lacks words to express how she feels.
“I’m so super excited because I’ve not heard that cycling qualified for the Olympics before and me being the first person to qualify for it, I don’t know how I’m going to express it”.
Having qualified for the Olympics, Ese, as she is fondly called by her teammates, has sent a message of appeal to the sporting authorities to assist her prepare for the Paris 2024 Games so she could make an appreciable impact.
According to her, “with all due respect, what I want the government to do for me is to assist me be in a training camp outside Nigeria to improve my performance and have different competitions before the Olympics”, adding that, “and we need good equipment to train at home too”.
She said she was excited some younger female cyclists like Peace Olawale and Osaretin Godwin who won gold and silver in their category in the road race at the Accra championships are also pushing hard in the sport too. “The junior ones are really coming up in full force and I wish to encourage them and support them in any way I can”, she stressed.
Despite already qualified for the Olympics in the road race, Technical Director of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria, CFN, Bashir Mohammed have disclosed that the CFN will take Ese to Cairo in two weeks for another qualification race in the track event which is different from road race.
“She will be going to Cairo in two weeks to compete in Track Championships and the International Cycling Union, UCI Nations Cup which is also an Olympic qualification,” Mohammed disclosed, adding that Ese will be competing in the Keirin and 500m Time Trial events.
