Once upon a time, the Nigeria athletics team relied on big names like Deji Aliu, Obinna Metu, Olusoji Fasugba, Ogho- Oghene Egwero, Blessing Okagbare and a host of others. But today, the face of athletics in Nigeria is changing and new ‘kids’ are turning up on the block.
Divine Oduduru is one of such new athletes making names for themselves on the Nigerian athletics scene and striving to be either as great as or even better than late Sunday Bada, Aniefiok Udo-Obong and Falilat Ogunkoya. Oduduru, a 100m dash and 200m specialist has already earned himself the enviable tag of ‘Sprint Sensation’ after winning some junior championships and proving his mettle at world championships.
What he lacks in speech-making he makes up for in speed by Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) through the help of its president, Solomon Ogba. Today, Okagbare is a name to reckon with in 100metres, 200metres and the long jump. She has won medals in all of these track and field events at various championships across the world.
At the moment, she also holds the Women’s 100 metres Commonwealth Games record for the fastest time at 10.85 seconds. She is also the African record holder for the 100m sprint event with her personal best of 10.79seconds. She was the African 100m and long jump champion in 2010.
She has also won medals at the All-Africa Games and the IAAF Continental Cup. which is no wonder his name effortlessly made the team list of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to the 2015 All Africa Games. Oduduru won the gold medal in both the 100m and 200m at the 2013 African Youth Athletics Championships and was a finalist in sprints at the 2013 World Youth Championships in Athletics.
He was also part of the relay team at the last Commonwealth Games in 2014. Another of such rising stars of Nigerian athletics today is Ese Brume, who is currently one of the country’s best long jumpers. Brume is already writing her name in gold, and is a regular face in Nigeria’s athletics field.
Brume is already taking after Nigeria’s golden girl, Blessing Okagbare, who is still rated number one in that track and field sport. The 19-year-old athlete, who hit the national scene just about three years ago, won gold in long jump at the 2014 Commonwealth Games. Before then, she had won three medals at the 2013 African Junior Athletics Championships and represented Nigeria at the World Junior Championships in Athletics in 2014.
She holds a personal best of 6.68 m (21 ft 103/4 in) and is the African junior record holder in the event. These two are part of the new crop of athletes setting Nigeria’s athletics scene on fire. They and several others will be competing for the country at the All Africa Games in September.
Having looked at the newbies making waves on the athletics scene, it is important to pay respects to the big guns in the sport. Leading in that spot at the moment is none other than Blessing Okagbare, one of the world’s fast women who stands tall alongside her counterparts from the US and Jamaica. Okagbare, a native of Delta State was discovered by the Delta State Sports Commission and nurtured by Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) through the help of its president, Solomon Ogba.
Today, Okagbare is a name to reckon with in 100metres, 200metres and the long jump. She has won medals in all of these track and field events at various championships across the world. At the moment, she also holds the Women’s 100 metres Commonwealth Games record for the fastest time at 10.85 seconds. She is also the African record holder for the 100m sprint event with her personal best of 10.79seconds.
She was the African 100m and long jump champion in 2010. She has also won medals at the All-Africa Games and the IAAF Continental Cup. But it was not always so rosy for Okagbare. At the 2012 Olympics in London, she recorded what analysts of the sport have called her worst career moments.
She finished last in the final of the 100meters event, lost out with her teammates in the 200metres event and failed to pick a medal in the long jump, all these after winning a bronze medal in the previous Olympics in Beijing in 2008. With the weight of the country’s expectations on her shoulders, Okagabre was especially heavily criticized by Nigerians for being arrogant and not good enough in spite of huge funds put into training her. Brokenhearted, Okagbare began considering leaving the sport for good.
But that was before her spirit was lifted by the outgoing governor of Delta State, Emmanuel Uduaghan as recalled by the former chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission, Amaju Melvin Pinnick. “I recall vividly that Okagbare came back to Nigeria after the London Olympics Games unheralded. She was abused by some and nobody welcomed her.
But Governor Uduaghan called me in the middle of the night and told me to bring Okagbare to him, which I did the next morning. “On seeing her, the Governor told her to forget about what happened in London and that finishing eight did not mean that she was last but that she was the eight best sprinter in the world.
The Governor told her to think of the future, which he emphasized held so much promise for her. “Okagbare’s spirit was lifted after the meeting with the Governor. She drove my car to her house and the next day, the Governor bought her a brand new SUV so that she could move around in comfort and style.
On receiving the key to the SUV, Okagbare said ‘what can I do without this man’ and that was when she swore to win everything in the future,” Pinnick recalled in an interview with a popular local news daily. And win, she did. A year later in July, 2013, Okagbare returned to the same London Olympics Stadium and ran her best 100meters event, winning at 10.79seconds to become Africa’s fastest woman.
She beat reigning 100m Olympics gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on the way to that glory. Fraser-Pryce had placed first while she (Okagbare) was eighth only a year earlier at the 2012 London Olympics, but with proper motivation, the desire to succeed and hard work, Okagbare sped past the Jamaican sprinter to win the race.
In 2014, Okagbare won the Commonwealth Games 100m event with a time of 10.85, breaking the championship record of 10.91 seconds set by Bahamas’ Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie 12 years earlier at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester. She then won the gold medal in the 200m event in 22.25 seconds, making the history books as the fourth woman to win the 100m and 200m double at the Commonwealth Games.