The President of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria (CFN) Giandomenico Massari, on Tuesday, said the Federation would continue working hard to gather more points, to qualify for Olympics 2024 in France.

Massari stated this in Abuja, after the arrival of the team that represented the country at the 2021 TISSOT UCI Track World championships in Rouibax, France, which served as World Track Championship qualifiers in France.

He said Nigeria was one of four countries that represented the continent in the championship, with the highest number of cyclists.

“This is first time we are participating in the world track cycling Championship. In Africa only four countries qualified, South Africa went with only one in the male category as team, Algeria with two males, Egypt had one female.

” Nigeria went with four female cyclists and they all did well in all the competitions,” winning gold medal for the country, he said

“We started this type of cycling (Track cycling) in less than three years, in January 2019 to be precise, because all we have been doing was road cycling.

“This is the first time we qualified for the world track Championship. We have acquired points and raised our profile in the international UCI ranking.

“Our athletes went there in good spirits and performed very well and they did their best and everyone appreciated them for their wonderful performance,” he said.

Massari added that a Championship of this type would help the cyclists to gather more points ahead of the 2024 Olympics in France.

He, however, lamented the challenges the Federation encountered before setting out to France.

“We are trying to overcome all the difficulties and challenges we had and they were many, the visa was one of the challenges we encountered.

“We got visas for the cyclists at the last moment, within three days, the Ambassador of France in Nigeria Mme Emmanuelle Blatmann needed to intervene before we got it.

“We did all the competitions and we did about five competitions in total, we finished all the competitions and we have a good record in all our performances at the just concluded championship.

“Our athletes went there in good spirits and performed very well and they did their best and everyone appreciated them and Nigeria for the wonderful performances.

“We are one of the best in Africa and everybody have accepted us. So, from now on we have to consolidate, it’s a lot of work. But, we are already on the right track because this is the starting point for the qualifications for the Olympics.

The 111th UCI Track cycling World championship which is also known as the 2021 TISSOT UCI Tracking World championship in Rouibax, France, took place between Oct. 20 and Oct. 24