The
good news about Nigerian athletes going to the London 2012 Olympics
holding later this month is that the track and field team finished their
last major test before the Games on a high. The Team Nigeria contigent
the 18th African Athletics Championships, Porto Novo, Benin Rep.,
grabbed 10 gold, six silver and five bronze medals ahead of Kenya, South
Africa and Senegal. But here is the other side: their finishing times
are far below what some of their counterparts are recording in other
parts of the world.
The last time Nigeria won an athletics gold in the
Olympics was in 1996 when Chioma Ajunwa won the long jump event with her
7.12 metres jump. The Dream Team also defeated Argentina to win the
football event. In both events, Nigeria overcame the very best to emerge
winners.
If the team believes in Olympic déjà vu, there might
be hope for the likes of Blessing Okagbare in the women’s 100m and the
long jump, and the men’s 100m trio which has Obinna Metu at the top of
the list.
On Monday, the Athletic Federation of Nigeria named
31 athletes for its London training camp, but the question on the many
people’s minds was if the athletes would be ready to compete favourable
with the Usain Bolt and Justin Gatlins of this world.
“I’m not demanding the athletes to go to the Olympics
and beat Bolts or Yohan Blake. But I want every athlete to be in the
semi-final. If they do that, I’ll be very proud and satisfied. It is
from there that we can talk about how many medals we can win,” AFN
President, Solomon Ogba, says.
Ogba was no doubt impressed with the athletes’
performance in the African Championships, not only because they won the
competition, but mainly because of the fact that many of them met the
‘A’ Standard set for the Olympics.
“We have five people who made the ‘A’ Standard in the women’s 100m.
Four of them made the standard again this year. We
have three athletes who made the ‘A’ Standard in the women’s 200m, two
other athletes made the standard in the women’s 400m,” Ogba adds.
“The first three women in the 100m – Okagbare, Gloria
Asumnu and Lawretta Ozoh – are running a 10secs flat. They’ve been
consistent and have made the ‘A’ Standard.
“Regina George ran her season best of 51.11 seconds
in Porto Novo. Her finishing time was just behind the reigning 400m
women’s world champion but ahead of the Commonwealth Games champion.”
American Sanya Richard-Ross is the current world
champion with her 50.79, which she posted at the IAAF Indoor
Championships last Turkey last March; Aleksandra Fedoriva of Russia won
silver in the event with 51.76.
A new addition to the 400m event is Omolara Omotosho,
whom Ogba said was drafted from the junior team after her impressive
performance at the ECOWAS Games in Accra, Ghana.
Ajoke Odumosu, a 400m hurdler, had run the ‘A’
Standard six times this year. She ran her season best of 54.99 in the
women’s 400m hurdles in Porto Novo. She will, however, have to do better
to beat someone like Ti’erra Brown of the US, who won the Addidas Grand
Prix in 54.85 ahead of Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer, who finished in 54.91
last month.
Uhunoma Osazuwa in the heptathlon event was short of
the Games standard of 49 points in Porto Novo. She leapt 6.33m in the
long jump, but in Calabar she did 6.52m. Ogba believed if she had
competed in the high jump she could have won the event.
He says, “She jumped 1.85m in Calabar, while 1.86m
won the event in Porto Novo. And then in hurdles, she ran 13.16, when
she broke the national record she ran 13.28. Her weakest point is the
javelin, but we’re going to work on that before the Olympics. If she
improves in this, by then, she should be in the medals range in London.”
One other bright hope among the women is Vivian
Chukwuemeka in the shot put event. She threw beyond 18.20m in all her
five rounds, winning with her best of 18.56m, an African record. She
improved her nine-year record, which stood at 18.43m.
It will be a tougher challenge for the men, who will have to displace Bolt, Blake, Gatlin and Asafa Powell to pick any medal.
Metu, Ogho-Oghene Egwero and Peter Emelieze all made
the ‘A’ Standard in the 100m, just as Amaechi Morton in the 400m hurdles
and Oluwatosin Oke in the triple jump. Only Selim Nurudeen in the men’s
110m hurdles falls in the ‘B’ Standard.
“The law is that if you don’t have any ‘A’ Standard,
you can go with ‘B’ Standard athlete, so he’s qualified to be at the
Games,” Ogba said.
With a timing of 10.40 seconds average among the
men’s 100m athletes, there seems to be little hope in the event
considering what the Jamaican sprinters posted last week.
Blake won the Jamaican trials in 9.75 seconds,
becoming the fourth fastest man ever in the event. Bolt, the 100m and
200m Olympics champ and world record holder, was second in 9.86 seconds
after a poor start and Powell was third in 9.88 seconds.
If the starting block includes Gatlin, Dwain Chambers and Tyson Gay, there just might be no hope for the Nigerian sprinters.
To add to Nigeria ’s woes, the men’s 4x400m team were
not listed by the IAAF for the Olympics. The team are 17th on the list
based on point rating for the Games, while the first 16 will compete in
London .
“There was a similar situation at the 2008 Olympics
but Kenya had to withdraw from the women’s relay, which gave Nigeria the
opportunity to feature in the event. We have our team on the standby
just in case any other team withdraws,” AFN technical official, Yusuf
Alli, said.
The AFN is, however, not giving up hope on the
athletes despite the record of the Jamaicans and the American. The body
is looking to engage American coach, Nat Page, who is the coach of
Georgia Tech hurdles team and a former Olympian, to assist coach
Innocent Egbunike in Surrey, Nigeria’s training camp in London.
Garfield Ellenwood, a former sprinter and one-time relay coach of the US team, is also expected to join Nigeria at the camp.
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