The start of the African track and field championships in Nigeria was delayed Wednesday after hundreds of athletes were stranded at an airport, some for three days when they were left to sleep on the floor as they waited for a connecting flight to the host city.
The Confederation of African Athletics said only a small number of events scheduled for the first day of competition in Asaba in Nigeria's southern Delta state would go ahead, and they will be moved back from the morning to the afternoon.
The majority of the events scheduled for the first day will take place later in the week after the chaos at Lagos' international airport.
The CAA said there had been "organising problems" as angry and exhausted athletes and team officials were stuck in Lagos amid flight cancellations and long delays. Some were still there on Wednesday.
Pictures posted on social media showed Africa's top athletes sleeping on the airport floor surrounded by their luggage.
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Some used suitcases for pillows as they slept next to airline check-in desks.
Members of the Kenyan team spent 48 hours at the airport and threatened to quit the championships and go home before they all finally arrived in Asaba on Wednesday.
"It's not being rude ... it's being real. Nigeria is a poor, poor country," Nicholas Bett, Kenya's 400-metre hurdles world champion in 2015, wrote on his official Facebook page.
