“South African athletes vacated their accommodations at the athletes hostel to enable them to concentrate on winning the CAA U-18/U-20 Championships in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Athletics South Africa deputy president John Mathane said they needed to change accommodations to enable his athletes to avoid distractions from their Nigerian competitors and also to live closer to the MKO Abiola Stadium.

He said, “We have absolutely nothing against the accommodations provided; we are glad with them.
“We removed ourselves from the village because Nigeria is following us too much; in training they are there, even when we go to the restroom they are there.”

We decided to accommodate our athletes near the stadium so that we could concentrate on the championships and also not travel for one hour to the hostels. We didn’t have problems, no problem at all with the athletes village.”