Nigeria Content Online

One
of Nigeria’s greatest prospects for medals at this year’s All African
Games in Maputo, Mozambique, as well as the IAAF World Championships
billed for Daegu, in South Korea, Ogho-Oghene Egwero will be among top
stars competing today at the Meeting Pas de Calais, in Liévin, France.

The meeting, which
is one of the IAAF’s top indoor competitions for this year, is expected
to attract top stars from around the world.

Egwero, who is
based in Stuttgart, Germany, said he would be taking part only in the
60m event at the competition and remains optimistic of churning out a
good performance.

“This is not my
first race of the season. My performance has been cool but I hope to
improve with each of the races as they come,” said the 60m
semi-finalist at last year’s World Indoor Championships in Doha.

At an earlier
meeting in Bordeaux, France a fortnight ago, Egwero finished third in
his race with a time of 6.81seconds but hopes to improve on that in
today’s race.

High hopes

Nigeria’s best
moment in the 60m event in recent times was at the 2008 IAAF World
Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain when Olusoji Fasuba coasted to
victory in a time of 6.51 which was then a world leading time. Fasuba’s
win became the first indoor short dash World Championship title for
Africa.

Already Egwero is
hoping to match and even surpass the feat of his compatriot very soon
and for his coach back home in Nigeria, Paul Obodoechina, it is not
impossible for the Delta State born athlete.

“Every upcoming
athlete’s dream is to surpass previous records and for him to have such
an aspiration it is a welcome development. I believe he can because he
is improving day by day and he is very hard working too,” said the
coach.

Tamgho targeting
18m While many other top athletes will be aiming for top notch
performances later today, French triple jumper Teddy Tamgho has set an
ambitious high of no less than an 18-metre performance for himself.

The world indoor
champion and record holder (17.90m) is indeed in great form, judging by
his two competitions so far: 17.46m in Liévin for the regional meeting
in late January, and in Eaubonne last week, where he accomplished a
remarkable series – 17.33m, 17.59m, 17.56m, and 17.13m.

Coached by Cuban
long jump legend, Ivan Pedroso, the 21-year-old Frenchman refuses to
set any limit in order to fulfil his unknown potential.

“I fouled an 18 metre jump indoors in Bercy two years ago, so I know I can jump even farther now,” he told the IAAF website.