NIGERIA’S Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunma, has revealed how she could not get a Nigerian flag after winning the gold medal in a field event at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, USA.

Ajunma, who just recently retired from the Nigeria Police Force as a Deputy Commissioner of Police after 35 years of service, felt nostalgia about her heyday in sports while speaking on a sports radio programme in Lagos.

She described her feat at the 1996 Olympics when she made a jump length of 7.12 meters (on her first attempt) during the final to pick the gold medal as divine, saying that nobody ever believed in her to win a medal.

“Eventually, when I won the gold, there was no flag for me to take to the victory lap. Nigerians should have seen that when I won the gold, there was no flag for me. Somebody from another country gave me that small flag I used that day.

“It was a season that no man, not even our minister, Jim Nwobodo, expected anything good from me.”

She added: “I felt so humiliated, but I thank God He came for me. Nobody expected anything good, but God is alive. He is very interested in me, and I have been trying my best since then.”

She thanked Nigerian ex-international Chief Segun Odegbami for his intervention to shed light on the alleged doping test she failed at the 1992 Olympics in Spain, saying that his intervention absolved her of the allegation.

“They said we failed the dope test. Yes, we failed the dope test. Eventually, Chief Segun Odegbami called the people that this was the first time Nigerians were doing a dope test here. Come and check what they did was right.

“Fortunately, they came; they saw everything, but when I came back, I showed everyone that God is bigger than man. I want to thank God that even today, as I retired from the Nigeria Police Force, I am still active and in good health. I am very grateful to God,” she said.