A left knee injury has knocked out Nigeria’s Omole Dolapo (pictured) from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
He has has now been replaced by Ethiopia’s Yadesa Leta whom Dolapo defeated in the finals of the Africa Olympic qualifiers last year in Dakar, Senegal.
Dolapo’s coach, Adura Olalehin confirmed the Africa Games featherweight champion is officially out of the Paris Olympics.
“Due to a medical issue, Dolapo is not going to Paris,” said Olalehin on phone from their training camp in Germany.
Contacted, Dolapo said he was very disappointed to be out of the Games.
“I’m depressed and hoping to rise again stronger because I’m bitterly down, the knee injury is so painful now I wish myself quick recovery,” he said from Lagos.
“The knee problem started when I was still young, it became worse at the Africa Games in Accra but I soldiered on.”
Ethiopia’s Yadesa Leta whom Dolapo defeated in the finals of the Africa Olympic qualifiers last year in Dakar, Senegal will replace the Nigerian in Paris 2024 boxing competition
Dolapo made his international debut in the Africa Elite Championships in Yaounde, Cameroon, last year, settling for a bronze medal.
He started boxing when he was six years old at Alaba International in Ojo Local Government Area, Lagos State.
“I was just doing it for fun. Sometimes I won gold at local competitions, sometimes I didn’t win anything. But I knew that one day, it will pay so I continued despite the challenges,” Dolapo told the Daily True newspaper in an interview in April this year.
“So, I kept grinding till when I became the state champion. From there, I moved up from being an amateur to professional boxer. In my professional boxing voyage, I have been involved in nine fights, recording nine wins by knockout. It was after this impressive record, I received the call to the national team.”
Credit: AFBC Communications
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