The 21st African Senior Athletics Championships kicks off in Asaba, Nigeria on Wednesday, but many of the participating athletes are unlikely to make it to the venue in time for the opening events.
According to various reports, some 300 athletes are stuck in the Murtala Mohammed International Airport in Lagos due to a three-day backlog of flights.
Chartered flights have been arranged for the almost 450km trip, but with the opening event - the decathlon - supposed to start at 9am, it remains to be seen who makes it to Asaba on time.
Shame on you Nigeria for playing Dirty tricks on African athletes who have been stranded in Lagos for more than 2 days ahead of the Africa Senior Athletics Championship. This is so sad and major investigations should be carried out by the IAA. #aSABA2018 pic.twitter.com/CxjCv7YV7F
— The President 🇰🇪🇺🇬🇺🇸 (@Ugaman01) July 31, 2018
Moroccan high jumper Rhizlane Siba said their preparations for the event have been massively affected by the chaos.
"We made it to Lagos two nights ago," she is quoted by AfricaNews. "We slept the first night at the airport and the second night at the hotel. They claimed that we had a flight coming today, but we have spent the whole day at the airport.
"We are stranded in Lagos. We haven't trained for three days, and we haven't eaten properly in two days."
The African Senior Athletics Championships runs from August 1-5. South Africa are the defending champions, having topped the medals table in 2016 (Durban) and 2014 (Marrakesh).