Sports
AFN Golden League Home-Based Athletes Jostle For Honours
The Athletics Federation of
Nigeria (AFN) and the Anambra State Athletics Association are set to stage the maiden AFN/ Anambra Golden League, which would feature no fewer than 800 athletes.
The athletes include some 400 students from secondary schools across the state. The event has been scheduled to hold at the Rojenny Stadium, Oba tomorrow in the athletics-loving state.
Anambra is reputed to have in the past produced top world-class athletics beaters, the likes of Mary Onyali, Innocent Egbunike and Uche Emedolu.
Egbunike still remains the current African record holder in 400 metres. He posted 44.17 seconds at 1987 World Athletics Championship in Rome, which had still been standing 28 years after.
He also won a bronze in the 4X400 at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, hosted by the U.S., in addition to a series of gold medals from the Africa and the Commonwealth Games.
Onyali on the other hand, won multiple gold medals at the Africa Games. She was also a bronze medalist in the 4X100 metres at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
Sprinter, Emodolu won a World Cup in athletics at the 2002 World Cup in Madrid, Spain. He also won a bronze in the 4X100 metres, at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, among other medals he won at the Commonwealth and the Africa Games.
The Golden league event has on offer, not less than N1.5 million as jackpot.
The league would also offer opportunity for the home-based to prepare ahead of the AFN/CRS All Nigeria Athletics Championships, which would serve as trials for the Beijing 2015 IAAF World Championships.
The Championships are scheduled to hold from August 27 to August 30 at the Birds Nest in Beijing, China.
The league will also serve as trials for the selection of athletes to the 11th All Africa Games scheduled to run from September 4 to September 19 in Congo Brazzaville.
The question on the lips of many has been, will the home-based be able to withstand their foreign-based counterparts when they troop down to jostle for places in the team for the Africa Games and the World Championships.
According to Kayode Thomas, the spokesman of the AFN, Kayode Thomas in a statement, the Golden League was designed to help the home-based to raise their performances to be able to give their foreign-based counterparts a run for their money at the trials.
The Technical Director of the AFN, Omatseye Nesiama said athletes must score a minimum of 1,070 points in the track sprints events and 1,050 in other track events to be able to make it to the trials.
He added that in the jumps, athletes must score a minimum of 1,050 points and score a minimum of 900 points in the throws events to be considered for the trials.
In Walk Race event, athletes must score a minimum of 700 and 350 points by the men and women respectively to be at the trials.
Nesiama said not less than 20 events would feature at Golden league competition.
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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