Former Nigerian Boxing Federation (NBF) technical director, Amade David has attributed the poor performance of Nigeria’s boxing contingent at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to the ‘political dismissal’ of coach Anthony Konyegwachie just before the tournament began.

David claimed that Konyegwachie’s sudden removal as head coach left the boxers without proper guidance and supervision. This, he argued, was a significant factor in the team’s disappointing campaign.

“It is a disaster, and I wouldn’t want to push blame. Well then, you know that the head coach boxing is not in Paris,” he told Brila.net.

“There are some kind of political game and some people find their way there, he was dropped. And when I heard this, I was shocked. They had been working hard, but at this point of going to Paris, somebody worked against him and he was dropped,” David explained.

“So whatever is happening there now, maybe it’s a result of their coach. The person they know, the person they are close to, is not with them, there to guide them. That’s one factor. Another again, is the entire management team of boxing, they have not closely checkmated these athletes to know what they take, what goes in and what comes out. If not, normally, a competition of this magnitude, we normally have our own local doping test here in Nigeria.”

David further criticized the lack of thorough preparation, comparing it to past experiences.

“I could remember when I carried the Nigerian team to Algeria, All African Games. We had doping tests here in Nigeria. All of the tests were checked. And when we got there, we scaled through. But I don’t know why they could not detect this from Nigeria. That’s why I call it a disaster. It’s a serious disaster,” he lamented.