Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tough challenge awaits team Nigeria in athletics


Nigeria’s Gloria Asumnu (2nd left) edges compatriot Lawretta Ozoh  to win the women’s 200m in Porto-Novo
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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