Tosin Oke’s Dazzling Rise To Stardom

Nigeria’s Triple Jump hero, Tosin Oke gave a glimpse of what Nigerians should expect at the 10th All Africa Games in Maputo when he jumped a season’s best of 17.21m at the 59th edition of the London Samsung Diamond League. The lift placed him in the second position after American Christian Taylor recorded 17.68m to win the gold and another Nigerian-born British star Idowu Phillips came third with 17.07m. Taylor produced a personal best while Oke produced a season’s best to upset defending world champion Idowu on a good day for Nigerian athletes at the Crystal Palace Diamond League meet which ended on Saturday.

The U.S. champion and Idowu were lavishly celebrated by the media in their respective countries but Oke went home an unsung hero. He did not make frontpage news in Nigeria like his counterparts. Even the American and British media simply made passing reference to his feat while the British newspapers canonized Christie Ohuruogu who came last in the 400m women. 

Tosin Oke deserves all the epithets and accolades in the English lexicon especially with his carriage and confidence at the London Diamond Meet as he gave the American and his compatriot, Idowu a run for their money. It was unfortunate that he could not leap over the 17.68m record of the American but it was obvious that his intention was to dust the champion and edge his name in gold like he did at the last Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.

At 31, Oke’s rise from a Cambridge rookie in 1997 to world’s top five is phenomenon. His case becomes a classic example of rugged determination to catch a niche for one self when he chose to dump Britain where he had brightest future to pit his tent with his fatherland, Nigeria where our heroes are usually not worshipped or hardly celebrated like the western world. Since 2008 that he declared his interest in competing for his country of origin, Nigeria, it has been a case of leaping from grace to grace.

In the 2010 season, Tosin jumped a series of personal bests indoors, finishing with 16.89m in Birmingham. In his finest season so far, he went on to win the 2010 African Championships in Nairobi, Kenya with a personal best jump of 17.22m, 1 cm off the Championship record, and to top it off, became the 2010 Commonwealth Games Champion in New Delhi, India with his second furthest jump ever—17.16m.

The longest standing national record in track and field in Nigeria is the leap of 17.26 m in the triple jump event set by Ajayi Agbebaku almost three decades ago in Edmonton, Canada and we have the strong conviction that the current African and national champion can surpass the mark pretty soon, as the London-based jumper’s swan-sung has been winning medals for the country and himself as his top priority.

We are particularly happy that Nigeria stands a pole position at the All Africa Games in Maputo. Baring injury, nothing can stop the guy from the podium while the whole of Maputo stands still for the Nigerian National Anthem after he must have broken the Games record.

With athletes like Tosin, Chika Chukwumerije, Blessing Okagbare and a host of others, Team Nigeria appear set for another record breaking outing at the All Africa Games irrespective of the evil machination of South Africa.

With 17.21m, Oke remains one of Nigeria's biggest prospects for a medal at both the All African Games in Mozambique where he will make his debut as well as the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Aware that coming tops in Maputo will not be a stroll in the pack like it was in Calabar, Oke already has his eyes on his ‘closest rivals' and his plans well cut out. There is a South African guy, Mokoena Khotso, who is coming back to the triple jump, so he is going to be on his radar. He was a silver medalist in the long jump at the World Championships, so Oke should see him as biggest rival. There was also the Cameroonian who came second during the Commonwealth Games, but the main thing is the World Championships. Getting to the finals and trying to get a medal will be a morale booster to the AAG with the euphoria of the World Championships.

Looking at the journey so far, it won’t be out of place to say that Nigerians aren’t seen nothing yet. The sky may not be able to limit for him.

Athletics Africa Is Seven

AthleticsAfrica.com will celebrates its seventh year anniversary on July 25, 2011.

As London prepares to mark the One-Year milestone to the kick-off of the 2012 Olympics Games on Tuesday July 26th, Athletics Africa will also be launching the 'Mission 2 London' series as part of the celebration.

The website will undergo a dramatic makeover in the coming weeks with a new section dedicated to the Olympics project which was designed to give a dedicated coverage and publicity to African athletes and Olympic hopefuls in the run-up to the Games.

The Editor of Athletics Africa, Yomi Omogbeja said: “We had come a long way from what was initially an MA in Journalism project in 2004 to a full-fledged online news website and magazine today, providing the much needed African track and field information and analysis to audiences both in Africa and the Diaspora.

“We have made a strong case for the promotion and development of athletics at the grass roots level in Africa, and in a few years the site had become the hub of the continent’s track and field discussions, providing 24 hours, 7 days a week news and information, events contacts, analysis and coverage.

The website provides exclusive videos and images of African track and field events and competitions. It also has a strong features and news section.

“So far, we have average monthly user visits of over 400,000 and average click-through rates of 150,000. We also have a vibrant facebook community with over 2,270 fans and growing.

“The 'Mission 2 London' series both online and in the Quarterly Athletics Africa Magazine would highlight African athletes as they prepare for the London 2012 Olympics in summer 2012. The series would give a dedicated coverage and publicity to African stars and other Olympic hopefuls in the run-up to the Games.

The 'Mission 2 London' series is expected to start running on our website from September 2011 and would be up till August 2012,” Omogbeja concluded.

Get the letast Nigeria athletics stories in athleticsafrica.com. And you can also send your views to sunny@athleticsafrica.com

Ajunwa Fights Against Drugs In Sports

Olympic gold medalist, Chioma Ajuwan Oparah, who started a campaign fighting against the use of drugs by athletes, has reiterated the need for Nigeria athletes to shun drugs saying it will destroy their career,

In a paper presented to the athletes at the end of the AFN/Desicon Golden League 4^th meeting at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos state during the weekend and titled “The Disadvantages Of Taking Of illegal Drugs In Sports”, Ajunwa said being her 5^th presentation in the series since she started the foundation, fighting drugs has become a part of her as it will help the athletes tremendously.

While revealing some drugs commonly use by the athletes such as Alcohol, Amphetamines, Anabolic Steroids, Caffeine, Cannabis, Cocaine, Ecstasy, Inhalants, Nicotine, Opiates, Phencyclidine, Seductive, Hypnotic or Atntianxiety drugs, Ajunwa maintained that all these drugs are all common with sports people.

Using herself as an example, Ajunwa advised that it is more honorable to lose without doping than to indulge in drugs abuse, all in the quest to win because when caught, such athletes will be on their own as the government and nobody will come to their aid.

The Nigeria Police Officer advised that to reduce or terminate the adverse effects of doping, drug education testing programs on its abuse should be intensified by various global agencies.

She also said government should make it a priority to test athletes before embarking on any international competition and also to look into the possibilities of applying stiffer penalties as a deterrent to athletes and official involved in it.

She concluded by saying athletes should note that it is only in drugs issues that there are no “advantage, everything about illegal drug abuse in sports is disadvantageous.”

6 African Countries For AFN/Mobil/Cross River Championship

Six African countries have signified interest to partake in this year’s edition of the annual AFN/Mobil/Cross River Track and Field Championships which comes up from the June 23^rd to 25^th in Calaber, Cross River State.

Confirming this at the weekend, Technical/Performance Director of the AFN, Sunday Bada said Ethiopia, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Cameroon have all signal their interest to participate in the competition.

Bada said the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), has sanctioned the competition as a scoring event to qualify for the World Championship coming up in Deagu, Korea in August this year.

He added that the countries will use the competition to qualify their 4x100 and 4x400 meter relay teams.

“I can confirm that six Africa countries will be taking part in this year’s edition of the AFN/Mobil/Cross River Track and Field Championships coming up on the 23-25^th of this month in Calaber.

“Though Ethiopia and Botswana has sent all their team list and confirmation but we are still awaiting confirmation from Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and Cameroon as they have sent in their team list.

He concluded that: “I can assure you that all six countries will be present because the IAAF has sanctioned the competition as a qualifying one for the 4x100 and 4x400 event and these countries will be coming to qualify their teams.”

AFN Awaits NSC Approval To Engage Ex-Internationals

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) is getting set to engage some ex-internationals in building Nigeria athletes for a better performance.

Disclosing this at the weekend during the 4^th meeting of the AFN/Desicon Golden, AFN President, Chief Solomon Ogba said the federation will be engaging 6 ex-internationals who will be sent to the different zones of the country for better monitoring of athletes but maintained that the federation is awaiting National Sports Commission (NSC)’s approval.

 “Very soon the AFN will be consulting with six ex-international athletes to monitor athletes in the different geo-political zones. We don’t have any employed coaches; we make do with what the states are bringing. Now we are trying to do something that will engage 6 ex-international athletes that we are going to send to the different zones and we are trying to engage this team as consultants and right now we are waiting for the approval of the NSC on this.”

Meanwhile, Ogba is banking on the strength of Nigeria relay team for results at the upcoming All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique in September this year.

He said Nigeria can win the relay events due to the fact that the country has the best team in Africa.

“For sure we can win the relay events in Mozambique because right now Nigeria has the best team in Africa. Adding the relay gold medals and getting additional 10 or so, then I see us winning the overall first position in the Games.”

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.