Nigeria Content Online

When Chioma Ajunwa won the Gold Medal at the Atlanta Games in 1996, much cheering greeted her victory. It was a glorious achievement for athletics in the country as it heralded the growing influence of the country’s athletes in world athletics.

However, despite the myriad of achievements recorded in the past 50 years on and off the tracks; coaches, athletes and administrators concur that athletics, which used to be a stronghold of Nigeria is fast dwindling.

“We are not where we ought to be definitely; each day we are losing our grip on those sports that we usually win. As a country we have played lip service to sports development and that is why we are where we are right now” Solomon Ogba, President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria said recently.

Athletics is perhaps the sport that has given the country the highest number of laurels internationally at different sporting events.

At the Olympics Games, which serves as the pinnacle of sports competition worldwide, athletics accounts for 13 out of the 23 medals won so far by Nigeria; two of which are Gold medals.

Great exploits

Right from the Los Angeles Olympic Games where the quartet of Sunday Uti, Moses Ugbusien, Rotimi Peters and Innocent Egbunike took the World by storm to win the bronze medal in the 400m event , Nigeria had been making so much impact on the world map but surprisingly took off its foot off the pedal recently for inexplicable reasons .

Internationally, Nigeria was a dominant force in sprint, quarter mile, hurdles, the relays, jumps and other areas of speciality.

In the Men 100m, Olapade Adeniken and Davidson Ezinwa were up there with the best in the world. Mary Onyali also rivalled the best in the women category while Falilat Ogunkoya and Fatimah Yusuf, gave the leading ladies of her time-Marie Jose- Perec, Cathy Freeman, and Jearl Miles- Clark a run for their money in the 400m.

At a time the current technical director of the AFN; Sunday Bada was hailed as the only quarter miler in the world that could beat the invincible American, Michael Johnson; their confidence arose from Bada’s sub 44.00 relay split at the Gothenburg ‘95 IAAF World Championship.

There were also the heroics of the likes of Innocent Egbunike, Chidi Imoh and Deji Aliyu at different competitions worldwide.

For many, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was the best for Nigeria with the country winning her first Olympic Gold medals in that competition. The history-making gold medal was in the women’s long jump event and won by Chioma Ajunwa.

Other medals won by Nigeria in the Atlanta Olympics include a bronze in the women’s 200 metres event won by Mary Onyali and the women’s 400 metres event won by Falilat Ogunkoya.

From Paris to Stuttgart, Moscow to Brussels, the roll call of athletes at any major athletics meet was incomplete without the mention of Nigerian athletes, who won laurels for themselves and country.

The downturn

Sadly, the situation has taken a nose dive as the country no longer ranks tops safe for a sprinkle of athletes that are still flying the flag high.

Several reasons have been adduced for the dwindling fortunes. While some blame the drop on the laxity of administrators, others say the athletes have been unpatriotic.

Falilat Ogunkoya, one of the greatest female athletes produced by Nigeria, said “It’s quite unfortunate to find ourselves where we are today. By now we should be ranking top in the world but instead we are still struggling to hold our own in Africa. In our own days we enjoyed scholarships to schools in the United States and Europe and that really helped us. Athletes no longer enjoy such as only few of them are privileged to have such opportunity”.

Falilat, the first Nigerian to win two medals at the same Olympics- silver and a bronze at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, also reiterated the level of commitment at her own time.

“Though we were well taken care off at that time, it doesn’t mean we were never owed money. But for someone like me, I always put my race first before money. I knew if I did well in my races the money would definitely come” she said.

So many athletes have complained of the poor welfare for them which have made some dump the country for other nations like Spain, Portugal, and Qatar.

For Abiodun, a high jump coach who discovered athletes like Doreen Amata, the former African Champion in High Jump, the blame goes to the officials who he says have been selfish over time.

“Of late the kinds of people we have at the helm of affairs are selfish people who are only interested in filling their pockets and not the improvement of athletes. If we can have genuine administrators, athletics can still pick up its pieces and move on,” Abiodun said.

As the country celebrates its Golden Jubilee, it would certainly relish amongst other achievements the two Olympic Gold medals from athletics. With concerted efforts the country is destined for greater heights.