Nigeria’s leading female cyclist and National Sports Festival champion, Ese Ukpeseraye has qualified for next year’s 33rd Olympic Games scheduled to hold in Paris, France.
Ukpeseraye qualified after she hit 250 points at the ongoing 19th Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) Road Championships in Accra, Ghana where she won the gold medal in the Elite Women Road Race.
The Delta-born cyclist beat 47 other cyclists in the 72km race with a time of 2 hours and 36 minutes ahead of Bamago Awa of Burkina Faso and Lucie De Mrigny Lagessa of Mauritius who picked the silver and bronze respectively.
An elated Technical Director of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria, CFN, Bashir Mohammed disclosed this on telephone from Accra, and said the federation would give Ukpeseraye good preparations for the Olympics with the support of the sports ministry.
“She needs to do more races in either South Africa or Europe. We will therefore need support from the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC so that she could be sent to the World Cycling center for training to enable her race frequently to get additional points and at the same time prepare her for the big task ahead,” Mohammed said.
The CFN Technical Director who doubles as the Secretary General of the CAC; also disclosed that Team Nigeria’s Peace Olawale and Osaretin Godwin won gold and silver respectively in the Youth Girls Road race while the Youth team also won the gold in the Team Time Trials.
