AFN/Solid Works Golden League : ...Abogunloko’s Absence Throws Sprint Title Open

The second leg of the 2013 AFN/Solid Works Golden League promises some exciting moments tomorrow when athletes file out for their events at the University of Benin Sports complex in Ugbowo, Benin City.

At the first leg in Sagamu a fortnight ago, most athletes who were starting their outdoor season were a little bit lethargic, resulting in poor results in most of the event. But that may not be the case on Saturday as  most of them have realized that high point scoring was important for them to win the prize money at stake.

“Most of the athletes were not too happy that they did not win the usual prizes at stake in the Golden League series. But now that they have been briefed on the need to improve their performances, we are bound to witness some really exciting moments at the Uniben Sports Complex on Saturday,” observed the Technical Director of the AFN, Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama.

The women sprint promises to throw up a new winner in the absence of quarter miler, Bukola Abogunloko who stepped down to boost her speed in the longer sprint but is away in the United States of America to feature in the Penn Relays slated for this weekend. She won the 200m in Sagamu.

But in her absence, the duo of Patience Okon (NSCDC) and Cross River State sprinter, Peace Uko would have to battle for the top prize. Okon (23.45) picked the silver in Sagamu while Uko settled for the bronze in 23.94secs.

In the long distance races, Nigeria’s contingent to the maiden Okpekpe 10km International Road Race who have been in camp in Abuja in the last fortnight are bound to produce some improved results in the 5,000m and 10,000m events.

The duo of Deborah Pam and Janet Dung (NSCDC) will try to outrun National Sports Festival revelation, Aminat Olowora of Lagos State in the 5,000m, just the way they did in the first leg in Sagamu.

In the men’s 10,000m, Nigeria’s hopes of challenging the East Africans in the Okpekpe road race, Emmanuel Gyang and Kefas Williams need this event as dress rehearsal. A good outing here in Benin is what will gladden the heart of National Long Distance Coach, Nuhu Stephens that his effort in the last three weeks on the athletes was not a waste of time and resources.

Some of the events listed to hold in the Benin leg include; 100m/200m, 800m, 5000m, 100m Hurdles, triple Jump, Shot Put, Discus, 4x100m Relay, 4x400m Relay and 20km Race Walking.

There will be an All Comers category in the Women 400m, Long Jump and Javelin.

Golden League events for men include; 100m/200m, 800m, 10, 000M 400M Hurdles, Long Jump, Javelin, Hammer, 4x100m Relay and 4x400m Relay.

AFN/Solid Works Limited Golden League: Benin City Welcomes Egwero, Others

Benin, the Capital City of Edo state will this weekend welcome Nigeria athletes to the second leg of the five leg in the 2013 Athletics Federation of Nigeria/Solid Works Limited Golden League which will hold in the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium this Saturday.

Scheduled to compete in Benin in the second leg is Nigeria’s frontline male sprinter Ogho-Oghene Egwero will be competing for the first time in the 2013 AFN golden League 100m event in Benin, event which was not included In the first leg when the golden league started in Shagamu two weeks ago. Also in for the Benin Meet are Issa Salihu, Chinazom Amadi, Margaret Etim amongst others.

Egwero who ran the 4x100m relay for Delta State at Shagamu said he could not compete because his event was not listed on the schedule.
“I came to Shagamu to run but my event (100m) was not listed, so I had to run the relay and I was happy we won it. Benin would be another race I won’t like to miss; I learnt the 100m event is listed.

The Women’s long jump event, though not in the Golden League is another must watch event. Competing for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corp female long jumper Chinazom Amadi who leaped a distance of 6.17m at Shagamu said Benin would be different.
“My performance at Shagamu was not good; I hope to jump better in Benin this weekend.
“Reasons for not jumping well were the absence of the landing board, couple with the fact that long jump was the last event, everyone was hurrying out of the stadium. It had an impact on some of us. I believe they would provide the landing board in Benin and fans would be on hand to support us as we compete,” Amadi said.

Most athletes have also commended AFN for slightly reviewing their stance on monetary rewards for winners. At Shagamu, there were no cash prizes for winners except they met set standards for their events but the AFN had promised to reconsider the decision and provide cash prizes for top four athletes as subsidy to enable them accommodate and feed themselves in Benin.

The second leg of the 2013 AFN/Solid Works Limited Golden League will take place this Saturday, 27th April at the the University of Benin, in Benin City, Edo State.

No Going Back On Golden League Standard -Ogba

President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Evangelist Solomon Ogba in this interview with okenaijaathletics at the 2013 AFN/Solid Works Limited Golden League first leg in Shagamu, Ogun State insists the standard set by the AFN remains… 

How will you rate the first leg of the 2013 AFN/Solid Works Golden League in Shagamu?

Being the first outdoor race for the athletes this season, I will say that some of the times ran by the athletes are okay, but some are not impressive especially from some of the athletes we are expecting to be doing better than now. That is the more reason why we have to select the few and put them in the national programme. We have seen now that individually, what they have done with their coaches will not take us where we should be.
The first four among the key events we are trying to target will move into the camp in the High Performance Center in Port Harcourt alongside with the athletes for the Youth Championship.
A situation where a female athlete returned 52.81secs in the 400m is not too fantastic but being her first race of the season, I considered it encouraging. That means she can run 50secs within a short period, though, we have not developed to a stage we can say we want to win the 400m at the Worlds. But we want a situation where we can put together four or five athletes who can run average of 50 or 51secs, if we can do that, we are going to be in top three in the world.

What prompted the changes made to the AFN 2013 program especially the Golden League was changed from its traditional six legs to five legs? 

We reduced the AFN Golden League from six legs to five, which we have done with the revised calendar and if you look at the cities we have picked, it’s just that we cannot find good tartan tracks and also hostel facilities in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. We are trying to go to the traditional areas of athletics; we are going to Benin, Ilorin, Port Harcourt and Warri just to re-awaken the sports.
Like they say, change is the only thing that is constant. The adjustment was made because we want the national trials to be at the same time with the US trials. It’s good to do that because you must learn from the experts, we are struggling to be like them, so if you want to be like them you must do what they are doing. In the last three years we have been doing the same thing with them.

What would be the fate of junior athletes that participated in the National School Sports Festival, they were so good and they were not at the Africa Youth Athletic Championships in Warri?

What happened in the national under-18 was that we took the results of the schools sports, most of them whose performance were better than that of the Under 18, they would be invited to the U-18 camp, and those whose performance were not good enough were not invited. We have a pool now and we want to create four under-age camps when they are on holiday, because when they are in school you cannot really run a long programme for them. We don’t want to stop the education of any child, those athletes are going to form part of our holiday camping programme. 

Athletes agitated over lack of monetary rewards after winning their events in Shagamu, was it intentional on the part of AFN?

The athletes were wrong in thinking and believing that after winning their events there would be money waiting for them.
AFN have standards for each event which athletes are aware of and failure to meet the standard means there is no money for them, it’s done everywhere. Even at that, I have directed that the first four in each event should be given monetary rewards just to assist them in transporting themselves and feeding, but AFN standard still stands. 

No Going Back On Golden League Standard -Ogba

President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Evangelist Solomon Ogba in this interview with okenaijaathletics at the 2013 AFN/Solid Works Limited Golden League first leg in Shagamu, Ogun State insists the standard set by the AFN remains… 

How will you rate the first leg of the 2013 AFN/Solid Works Golden League in Shagamu?

Being the first outdoor race for the athletes this season, I will say that some of the times ran by the athletes are okay, but some are not impressive especially from some of the athletes we are expecting to be doing better than now. That is the more reason why we have to select the few and put them in the national programme. We have seen now that individually, what they have done with their coaches will not take us where we should be.
The first four among the key events we are trying to target will move into the camp in the High Performance Center in Port Harcourt alongside with the athletes for the Youth Championship.
A situation where a female athlete returned 52.81secs in the 400m is not too fantastic but being her first race of the season, I considered it encouraging. That means she can run 50secs within a short period, though, we have not developed to a stage we can say we want to win the 400m at the Worlds. But we want a situation where we can put together four or five athletes who can run average of 50 or 51secs, if we can do that, we are going to be in top three in the world.

What prompted the changes made to the AFN 2013 program especially the Golden League was changed from its traditional six legs to five legs? 

We reduced the AFN Golden League from six legs to five, which we have done with the revised calendar and if you look at the cities we have picked, it’s just that we cannot find good tartan tracks and also hostel facilities in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. We are trying to go to the traditional areas of athletics; we are going to Benin, Ilorin, Port Harcourt and Warri just to re-awaken the sports.
Like they say, change is the only thing that is constant. The adjustment was made because we want the national trials to be at the same time with the US trials. It’s good to do that because you must learn from the experts, we are struggling to be like them, so if you want to be like them you must do what they are doing. In the last three years we have been doing the same thing with them.

What would be the fate of junior athletes that participated in the National School Sports Festival, they were so good and they were not at the Africa Youth Athletic Championships in Warri?

What happened in the national under-18 was that we took the results of the schools sports, most of them whose performance were better than that of the Under 18, they would be invited to the U-18 camp, and those whose performance were not good enough were not invited. We have a pool now and we want to create four under-age camps when they are on holiday, because when they are in school you cannot really run a long programme for them. We don’t want to stop the education of any child, those athletes are going to form part of our holiday camping programme. 

Athletes agitated over lack of monetary rewards after winning their events in Shagamu, was it intentional on the part of AFN?

The athletes were wrong in thinking and believing that after winning their events there would be money waiting for them.
AFN have standards for each event which athletes are aware of and failure to meet the standard means there is no money for them, it’s done everywhere. Even at that, I have directed that the first four in each event should be given monetary rewards just to assist them in transporting themselves and feeding, but AFN standard still stands. 

IAAF to open blood test centre in Kenya

The world athletics governing body, IAAF, will open a blood test centre, BTC, in Kenya’s Rift Valley town of Eldoret to cater for Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

IAAF are also seeking to collaborate with World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, to establish a laboratory to test samples collected in the region either in Nairobi or Eldoret, Athletics Kenya, AK, boss, Isaiah Kiplagat, said on Thursday.

“In the next three months, we expect progress to have been made on the proposed BTC. IAAF came up with the idea after extensive discussions about the seriousness of doping cases in this country,” he said.

“Currently, all samples collected here are sent to South Africa or Germany for analysis and having a lab here will keep us ahead in our fight to ensure that our athletes are clean,” the chair added.

The development comes hot on the heels of the Kenyan federation revealing that five runners had been sanctioned for various doping offences in the past two months.

“The matter has received a lot of attention at the IOC, WADA and IAAF. From the BTC, we shall have biological passports for every athlete in Kenya and Ethiopia,” Kiplagat said.

Biological passports monitor changes in the blood system and have been turned to in the global effort to identify cheats with high profile bursts such as the disgraced 2008 Beijing Olympics men’s 1,500m champion, Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzy, among those who have been unearthed by comparing samples collected in different seasons.

Kiplagat slammed the Kenyan Government for failing to get off the committee set up in January to investigate allegations of rampant doping amongst the country’s runners.

“WADA have sent many emails to the Government and copied to us asking what is happening and we raised the issue two months ago and the Sports Commissioner said they had already allocated (approximately $43,178) to the commission.’’

“We do not know why they are not working up to now but we can only wait since WADA only contracts the Government, not federations,” he said.

Wilson Erupe Loyanae and Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich are serving a suspension of two years each with Moses Kiptoo Kurgat being sanctioned for a year after Athletics Kenya announced in February that both their A and B samples tested positive to banned substances.

Loyanae tested positive for EPO, or erythropoietin, in an out-of-competition test conducted last year, the first Kenyan athlete to be caught using the banned drug hormone which increases the red blood cell count.

Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich tested positive to the anabolic steroid, Nandrolone, after competing in a race in Mexico.

On March 20, Salome Jerono Biwott who won the women’s race at the 2012 Stanchart Nairobi International Marathon in 2:26:41 and Jynocel Basweti Onyancha who took part in the 23rd Marathon International De Cullacan in Mexico on January are serving two-year ban each after being added to the doping list of shame.

IAAF to open blood test centre in Kenya

The world athletics governing body, IAAF, will open a blood test centre, BTC, in Kenya’s Rift Valley town of Eldoret to cater for Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

IAAF are also seeking to collaborate with World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, to establish a laboratory to test samples collected in the region either in Nairobi or Eldoret, Athletics Kenya, AK, boss, Isaiah Kiplagat, said on Thursday.

“In the next three months, we expect progress to have been made on the proposed BTC. IAAF came up with the idea after extensive discussions about the seriousness of doping cases in this country,” he said.

“Currently, all samples collected here are sent to South Africa or Germany for analysis and having a lab here will keep us ahead in our fight to ensure that our athletes are clean,” the chair added.

The development comes hot on the heels of the Kenyan federation revealing that five runners had been sanctioned for various doping offences in the past two months.

“The matter has received a lot of attention at the IOC, WADA and IAAF. From the BTC, we shall have biological passports for every athlete in Kenya and Ethiopia,” Kiplagat said.

Biological passports monitor changes in the blood system and have been turned to in the global effort to identify cheats with high profile bursts such as the disgraced 2008 Beijing Olympics men’s 1,500m champion, Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzy, among those who have been unearthed by comparing samples collected in different seasons.

Kiplagat slammed the Kenyan Government for failing to get off the committee set up in January to investigate allegations of rampant doping amongst the country’s runners.

“WADA have sent many emails to the Government and copied to us asking what is happening and we raised the issue two months ago and the Sports Commissioner said they had already allocated (approximately $43,178) to the commission.’’

“We do not know why they are not working up to now but we can only wait since WADA only contracts the Government, not federations,” he said.

Wilson Erupe Loyanae and Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich are serving a suspension of two years each with Moses Kiptoo Kurgat being sanctioned for a year after Athletics Kenya announced in February that both their A and B samples tested positive to banned substances.

Loyanae tested positive for EPO, or erythropoietin, in an out-of-competition test conducted last year, the first Kenyan athlete to be caught using the banned drug hormone which increases the red blood cell count.

Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich tested positive to the anabolic steroid, Nandrolone, after competing in a race in Mexico.

On March 20, Salome Jerono Biwott who won the women’s race at the 2012 Stanchart Nairobi International Marathon in 2:26:41 and Jynocel Basweti Onyancha who took part in the 23rd Marathon International De Cullacan in Mexico on January are serving two-year ban each after being added to the doping list of shame.

IAAF to open blood test centre in Kenya

The world athletics governing body, IAAF, will open a blood test centre, BTC, in Kenya’s Rift Valley town of Eldoret to cater for Kenyan and Ethiopian runners.

IAAF are also seeking to collaborate with World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA, to establish a laboratory to test samples collected in the region either in Nairobi or Eldoret, Athletics Kenya, AK, boss, Isaiah Kiplagat, said on Thursday.

“In the next three months, we expect progress to have been made on the proposed BTC. IAAF came up with the idea after extensive discussions about the seriousness of doping cases in this country,” he said.

“Currently, all samples collected here are sent to South Africa or Germany for analysis and having a lab here will keep us ahead in our fight to ensure that our athletes are clean,” the chair added.

The development comes hot on the heels of the Kenyan federation revealing that five runners had been sanctioned for various doping offences in the past two months.

“The matter has received a lot of attention at the IOC, WADA and IAAF. From the BTC, we shall have biological passports for every athlete in Kenya and Ethiopia,” Kiplagat said.

Biological passports monitor changes in the blood system and have been turned to in the global effort to identify cheats with high profile bursts such as the disgraced 2008 Beijing Olympics men’s 1,500m champion, Bahrain’s Rashid Ramzy, among those who have been unearthed by comparing samples collected in different seasons.

Kiplagat slammed the Kenyan Government for failing to get off the committee set up in January to investigate allegations of rampant doping amongst the country’s runners.

“WADA have sent many emails to the Government and copied to us asking what is happening and we raised the issue two months ago and the Sports Commissioner said they had already allocated (approximately $43,178) to the commission.’’

“We do not know why they are not working up to now but we can only wait since WADA only contracts the Government, not federations,” he said.

Wilson Erupe Loyanae and Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich are serving a suspension of two years each with Moses Kiptoo Kurgat being sanctioned for a year after Athletics Kenya announced in February that both their A and B samples tested positive to banned substances.

Loyanae tested positive for EPO, or erythropoietin, in an out-of-competition test conducted last year, the first Kenyan athlete to be caught using the banned drug hormone which increases the red blood cell count.

Nixon Kiplagat Cherutich tested positive to the anabolic steroid, Nandrolone, after competing in a race in Mexico.

On March 20, Salome Jerono Biwott who won the women’s race at the 2012 Stanchart Nairobi International Marathon in 2:26:41 and Jynocel Basweti Onyancha who took part in the 23rd Marathon International De Cullacan in Mexico on January are serving two-year ban each after being added to the doping list of shame.