Athletes Set Yaba Tech Track On Fire

…As Warri Host Final Leg June 15

Hostilities resumed at the weekend as Nigerian athletes jostled for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria AFN/Desicon prize money during the 4^th meeting of the Golden League at the Sports Complex of the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.

One of the contenders, Ogho Oghene Egwero had to drop out of the race in preference of a career-boosting meet in Rabat, Morocco to pave way for Shola Anota (Long Jump), Baba Ibrahim (Hammer), Justin Agu (800m) and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps’ 4x100m women relay team in the race for the jackpot which they all won to stay on course for the jackpot.

The high point the Lagos meeting was the 10.27 posted by Obinna Metu in the semi final. In the absence of Egwero who maintained a strong grip on the earlier three legs, Metu was easily the unassailable star of the field that included three Delta athletes Elvis Ukale (10.45), Nat Oletu (10.48) and Peter Unegbu (10.67).

Agnes Osazuwa who won the women version of the sprint in Abuja a fortnight earlier also picked her second title in the league with an 11.50 while Deborah Odeyemi (11.76) emerged second with Margaret Benson wining the bronze with 11.87 seconds.

None of the men quarter-miler was anywhere near the high 45sec three runners ran in the Abuja leg. The best of the weekend was a dismal 46.24 posted by Godday James.

Technical/Performance Director of the AFN Sunday Bada attributed the slow times posted in the Lagos leg to the two weeks break from the last leg.

“Without making cases for some of the poor times recorded here, I think the break between Abuja and Lagos did not help the athletes. Once the league begins, you don’t create room for slacking. But the inauguration weekend, which caused a shift to this weekend, made many to relax their training regimes, thereby slowing down the tempo with which we were expecting them to carry on,” he revealed.

He added that: “Egwero for instance started the League in Port Harcourt with a 10.5 went down to 10.33 and then 10.26. That is the trend we expected before the break,” observed the Sydney Olympics 4x400m gold medalist.”

The final leg of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Golden League will now hold on the 15 June in the oil city of Warri with the fantastic four edging each other in winning the 2 million jackpots.