Sports
Nigeria Relay Gets Reward At Oregon 2022
For placing sixth in the final, the country’s mixed relay team will smile home with $8,000 at the ongoing World Athletics Championship in Oregon, United States.
Prior to the championship, the country’s mixed relay team was ranked 15th in the world. But on Day One of the championship, last Friday, the team won the hearts of many spectators by displacing top teams, including Great Britain to book a place in the final.
Nigeria made her debut in the event at the Tokyo Olympics, last year, where it exited in the first round.
The team made the final on Friday after placing fifth in the first race but scaled through after the second race produced a slower time.
In the first final of the Oregon Championship, the Nigerians finished sixth, a performance described as fantastic by the AFN Performance Director and Team Leader, Victor Okorie.
“Nobody gave Nigeria a chance of making it to the final, considering the fact that we were rated 15th in the world coming to this championship. We made history here, and I am sure it is a sign of better things to come,” Okorie said, adding that the team has won $8, 000 for its effort.
“Nigerian athletes are determined to do well here in Oregon despite the late arrival of some athletes from Nigeria due to late departure and visa-associated hiccups. Some of our athletes arrived a few hours before their events and were able to make it to the finals. Two of our male sprinters will be competing in the men’s 100m semi-finals, and hopefully, they would berth in the finals.
“Our shot put champion, Enekwechi Chukwuebuka, is already in the finals, and I pray he wins a medal for Nigeria,” Okorie said.
On the Nike kits supplied to Team Nigeria, the performance director said: “We got these kits from Nike free, and we should commend them for coming to our rescue. The AFN will enter a formal agreement with Nike soon.
“The athletes are very happy with what they got. Things will surely get better because this current AFN board led by Tonobok Okowa will always go for the best.
Meanwhile, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), yesterday, provisionally suspended marathon runner, Kenya’s Lawrence Cherono and the United States 400m runner, Randolph Ross, meaning both athletes are out of Oregon 22.
A sample collected from Cherono tested positive for trimetazidine, a substance that is prohibited under the 2022 WADA Prohibited List as a metabolic modulator. Substances in this category modify how the body metabolises fat. Trimetazidine is approved for use in some countries to treat chest pain stemming from a lack of blood supply and oxygen to the heart.
A well-known football pundit in the State, Chief Christopher Okonkwo has lauded the efforts and vision of the Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle for going from one venue of the Nigeria Domestic Nigeria Professional Football League match to the other in monitoring Nigerian players, with a view to invite some exceptional good one discovered into the main stream of the Super Eagles team.
Okonkwo, who made the commendation in an interview at the Port Harcourt Club recently, described the positive move by Coach Chelle as a good step in the right direction, noting that the practice was how its been done in the past among any contracted coach assigned to tinker the Super Eagles team.
“Truly, it has been an old tradition in the country seeing any newly engaged Coach to lead the National team, visiting some our Nigeria League venues during the league matches to spot light some good talents that could be used to beef up some grey areas in the department of Eagles team”
He, however, frowned at the current situation where our coaches had continously been over depending on the use of foreign based players during invitation of players to the National camp, thereby, relegating the domestic home based league players to the background as if they have nothing much to offer to the team.
“I can vividly recall that the likes of great players in the mode of Finidi George, Taribo West, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Okocha, Richard Owobokiri, Emmanuel Osuigwe among others started from Nigeria football league before they graduated to play in Europe through which they later invited to Super Eagles camp to represent Nigeria”
“Besides, I’m also of the view that going to secondary school football competitive games could equally serves as a a good platform to discover budding talents that could be nurtured to become great stars in near future”, Okonkwo frankly added.
Okonkwo, therefore, prayed that any football coach to be engaged by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to tinker the Super Eagles should be told not to confine himself in staying in big hotel alone but to be visiting some of our local league match venues, with a view to discover some good players that can be drafted into the Super Eagles team.
“Indeed, I stand to be challenged that there some young good players in the Nigeria Professional League. If spotted and exposed, could give the some of the invited foreign based players a stiff competitive fight in securing a postion in the team”, Okonkwo emphatically stated.
Ezechukwu, one of the youngest members of the Nigerian contingent at the championship in Ghana, said her ambition was to win the 100m title in style and cap it with a new personal record.
The fresh secondary school graduate explained that she is fully focused on contributing to Team Nigeria’s medal hopes and is determined to deliver strong performances across her events.
“My main objective in Ghana is to clinch the 100m title and the 4×100m,” Ezechukwu told Tidesports source.
“Nigeria can be assured of my very best and my commitment to the Team. I would love to set a new personal best in Ghana, but anything that comes, I will take it. The spirit in the team is high, and I think we are ready to go,” she said.
Ezechukwu, who was part of Nigeria’s women’s 4x100m relay squad at the World Relays in Botswana, said the experience gained from that competition has strengthened her mindset heading into the continental championships.
She admitted that she learned valuable lessons from her previous outing, including a difficult moment during the relay where an early error affected the team’s rhythm, but said she has used the experience to improve her discipline and composure.
“The secret is just being disciplined, training hard and trusting my coach and believing in God, and the result will show,” she added.
The teenager is part of a 41-member Nigerian team comprising 24 female and 17 male athletes competing at the championships, which begin today at the University of Ghana, Legon.
Nigeria are expected to compete across multiple track and field events as they aim for a strong finish against the continent’s elite athletes.
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