President of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Hon. Daniel Igali has lauded the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to postpone the Tokyo 2020 Games till 2021, describing it as ‘the best thing to do’.
On Tuesday, the IOC and hosts Japan bowed to growing pressure from various Olympic Committees and stakeholders to announce the postponement of the quadrennial multi-sport event to a date ‘not later than summer 2021’ due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed over 18,000 lives globally.
In an interview with Today FM in Port Harcourt monitored by www.busybuddiesng.com, the Sydney 2000 Olympic gold-medalist said the athletes and coaches will now re-strategize ahead of 2021.
“With the scourge of the Covid-19 all over the world, and with no end in sight as it stands, I think the best thing to do was to have postponed it to next year,” the NWF boss said.
“The good thing is that it is not cancelled. The good thing is that we are still having the Olympics, it’s only that in another three years after next year, we might have another Olympics.
“But putting all the athletes’ minds at rest, all the coaches and officials minds at rest, I think it was the best thing to do.”
It is the first time the Olympic Games are suffering postponement in its 124-year modern history. Although, the Games were outrightly cancelled in 1916, 1940 and 1944 during the first and second World Wars.
