Cameroon Ends Nigeria's Olympic Dream

African champions Super Falcons of Nigeria will not feature in next year’s Olympics after they lost to their Cameroonian counterparts 4-3 on penalties after aggregate scores stood at 3-3 Saturday.

Nigeria 2-1 advantage from the first clash in August was overturned by a similar 2-1 win by 2011 African Games Gold medallists Saturday inside the Ahmadu Ahidjo Stadium in Yaounde.

Cameroon opened scoring after 32 minutes before they doubled their lead on 40 minutes when defender Ohale Osinachi caused a penalty and was sent off.

However, Perpetua Nkwocha pulled a goal back for Nigeria in the closing moments of the encounter.

Extra time of 30 minutes failed to produce any more goals.

In the resulting penalty shootout, Cameroon triumphed 4-3 with experienced defender Faith Ikidi missing the final kick for Nigeria.

This will be the first time Nigeria’s women will not feature at the Olympics since 2000.

Interestingly, the Falcons bashed Cameroon 5-1 last year in the African Women’s Championship in South Africa on their way to a sixth continental crown.

Cameroon, who took the place of disqualified Equatorial Guinea, now join Bayana Bayana of South Africa to represent Africa at the 2012 London Olympics.