Nigerian young athletes on fire at home and abroad
In a nation where it is hard to find ready replacements for aging athletes, the recent heart-warming performances of Nigeria’s young athletes at collegiate championships in the USA and other places have brought so much joy to stakeholders in Nigerian athletics.
Without doubt, Nigeria once dominated athletics in Africa and to a reasonable extent the world, when athletes like Mary Onyali Omagbemi, Falilat OgunkoyaOsheku, Chioma Ajunwa, Yusuf Alli, Late Sunday Bada, the Ezinwa brothers, Davidson and Osmond, Deji Aliu, Innocent Egbunike, Gloria Alozie, Olabisi Afolabi, Christian Okpara, Olusoji Fasuba and a host of others held sway.
When they eventually bowed out, the next generation athletes like Divine Oduduru, Christian Okoye, Mary Akor and many others received the baton but it is only Blessing Okagbare who has managed to come close to achieving what their predecessors had achieved.
Consequently, there have been concerns that Nigeria’s decline in world athletics might get worse when athletes like Okagbare whose career is lately tainted with a doping scandal finally hang their spike shoes.
However, there appears to be a spark in the midst of the looming gloom as some young Nigerian athletes have recently demonstrated the capacity and commitment to return the country to her glorious days in Africa and world athletics.
Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Grace Nwokocha, Tobi Amusan, Udodi Onwuzurike, Ezekiel Nathaniel, Raymond Ekevwo, Alaba Akintola, Favour Ashe, Chinecherem Nnamdi and Dubem Amene are some of the young Nigerians abroad who have posted impressive times and marks to trigger the infectious optimism.
Ofili ran a new national record of 21.96s in the 200m to win the Tom Jones Memorial Classic 2022, becoming the first Nigerian woman and collegiate athlete ever to run sub 22 seconds over the distance.
The 19 year old is the top ranked athlete in the event in the world so far this year and the only one to run inside 22 seconds.
Indoors, Ofili is also the only Nigerian woman ever to run a sub 23 seconds over the 200m distance.
Her compatriots Rosemary Chukwuma with a personal best of 11.05 seconds and Grace Nwokocha with a season’s best of 11.13 seconds in the 100 metres are also highly rated this year.
Tobi Amusan is ranked the fastest African athlete in the 100m hurdles so far this year and holds a personal season’s best of 12.61 seconds.
For the men, Udodi Onwuzurike is the 11th fastest man in the world so far this year following his impressive 10.07 seconds performance in the blue riband event last month while Raymond Ekevro, the reigning African Games 100m champion is returning to reckoning after an injury plagued 2021. The 23 year old ran 10.11 seconds in the event over the weekend at Walnut, California.
Akintola (10.09s), Ashe (10.11s) and Godson Oke Oghenebrume (10.12s) also posted personal bests in the 100m event just last weekend.
In the 400m hurdles, Ezekiel Nathaniel is looking to become the first Nigerian in seven years and the fourth in the history of the event to run a sub 49 seconds after posting an impressive 49.11 seconds towards the end of last month.
He is currently ranked the second fastest in the world this year. Nathaniel has also done 46.20s in the 400m flat, second in
the Nigerian ranking so far this year to Dubem Amene who holds a personal best of 46.04s achieved in February.
World Athletics U-20 bronze medallist in the Javelin throw, Chinecherem Nnamdi is also on fire and his big 78.42m new personal best mark which he threw last month in Texas is already threatening the 81.08m National record set by Pius Bazighe some 23 years ago.
At home Praise Ofoku ran a new 11.49 seconds personal best at the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) All Comers event at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City last month. She was hotly followed by Tima Seikeseye Godbless who ran 11.51 seconds, her second fastest ever time in the 100m event.
For the men, the duo of Ogheneovo Nicholas Mabilo (10.24s) and Adekalu Nicholas Fakorede (10.26s) showed signs they could be the next big sprinters to emerge from home like Enoch Adegoke did last year as they dominated the AFN All Comers meeting held last month in Benin, Edo state.
Last year, the home-based duo of Adegoke and Nwokocha proved athletes can fulfil their potential right here in Nigeria by not only running world class times but also qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Adegoke’s 10.00s performance
at the National Trials in Lagos is the fastest legal time ever achieved by a home-based athlete while Nwokocha’s 11.09s performance is still the fastest by a home-based woman since Mercy Nku ran 11.04 at an AFN event in 1997.
In view of these inspiring performances by the young athletes, Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, is on cloud nine. He said that these impressive performances are good signs for Nigerian athletics ahead of the African Senior Athletics Championships in Mauritius in June, the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, United States of America in July and the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.
Dare also promised that the Sports Ministry will always provide the enabling environment that will lead to the discovery of many talents as he charged the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) led by Tonobok Okowa to provide enough competitions for the athletes to enable them to fulfil their potential.
On his part, Okowa who spoke exclusively to Trust Sports said that the utmost concern is to ensure that the welfare of the athletes remains a top priority at all cost.
“By the Grace of God, we will have some sponsors that would be committed to us. We are particular about the welfare of the athletes and any other things. Anything that we can do for them to remain motivated to deliver, we will do it,” he said.
A former Director-General of the AFN, Siminialayi Young Pepple who spoke to our reporter with emphasis on Ofili who is a break-out star said the youngster must not be put under any form of pressure just as she urged the government to take Ofili’s welfare seriously.
“The most important thing is that she should not be put under pressure. Her coaches should carefully choose her competitions. She should not be allowed to partake in every competition so that she does not wear out so quickly.
“And the government should take an interest in her studies and take away anything that will distract or keep her under pressure,” he stated.
Also speaking on the performances of the budding athletes, a former international, Kayode Afolabi, advised that the AFN must ensure that they are positively engaged even when the athletics season in the USA is over.
“What the AFN should do is to make sure that these youngsters don’t stray into other things or stay idle when their season is over.
“Instead of waiting till the season resumes, the federation should keep them busy with programmes in the USA and at home. By doing so, they will remain in top form at all times.
“Personally, I can see a bright future for Nigerian athletics. If these youngsters are well managed, then we can expect laurels in no distant future,” he said.
On his part, Benue State athletics coach, Godwin Apuu said “To produce more quality athletes, Nigeria must return to the grassroots. We have abundant talents at the local level but there are no avenues for them to be discovered.
“I believe, if we begin to have regular inter-local government sports festivals where athletes can be selected to represent their states and then the nation, we would be able to reclaim our lost glory in athletics.”
Apuu, therefore, advised that the AFN should not carry all its eggs in one basket by over concentrating on the foreign based athletes. He reiterated that raw talents abound in all nooks and crannies of the country.