David Ngobua
17 September 2011
In few hours from now, the curtains would fall on the 10th edition of the All Africa Games which began on September 3 in Maputo, the capital city of Mozambique, famous for producing ?Maputo Express?, in Maria Mutola, the lady who dominated women?s 800m for over a decade.
Before the games commenced, most Nigerian sports fans expressed dissatisfaction with Team Nigeria?s preparations for the games. Even as officials remained adamant in their conviction that Nigeria would put up a spectacular show in Maputo, a large chunk of the populace was not converted by such level of optimism because they had several reasons to doubt such confidence.
Consequently, it was clearly a contest between optimism exuded by Team Nigeria officials, not the athletes themselves and the army of pessimistic Nigerians who justifiably wrote off the contingent to Maputo with a wave of the left hand.
Team Nigeria?s preparations for the All Africa Games ran into several hitches and NSC promptly blamed everything that went wrong on paucity of funds. It is worrisome to note that in the past, much was heard about Team Nigeria Trust Fund, but the commission still runs cap in hand to the federal government whenever the nation?s athletes are to attend any championship. Thus, it was not shocking news when the commission called off the proposed foreign training tour.
Even as Team Nigeria had several weeks of intensive camping at various training sites across the country, the performances of the athletes in the pre-games championships they attended left much to be desired. As a result, the cynicism among Nigerians escalated.
When the games proper commenced, Nigerians who doubted the ability of Team Nigeria were proved right as the country boasted of only one gold medal after days of competition. Just as it was in the days of Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo, Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, Sunday Bada, Chidi Imoh, and a host of other Nigerian athletes who held sway in the late 90s, Team Nigeria in Maputo had to wait on athletics to lead the way for the sudden resurgence.
Team Nigeria started on a rather slow pace with few medals trickling in from sports like badminton, table tennis, canoeing and karate. In badminton, Nigeria shared the gold medals at stake with South Africa. Team Nigeria won gold in team event, with Susan Ede and the duo of Bulus Jinkam and Olaluwa Fagbemi winning gold in women singles and men?s doubles respectively. Silver in women?s singles went to Grace Daniels who lost the finals to compatriot, Susan.
Much was expected from table tennis but in the end, it was a far cry from the desired result as the sport could not live up to expectations. Although he could not go beyond the quarters in the singles event, veteran player, Segun Toriola and Funke Oshinaike clinched gold in mixed doubles. The silver medal in the same event went to their compatriots, Monday Merotohun and Edem Offiong who lost the finals. Edem Offiong won gold in the women?s singles after beating her compatriot Funke Oshinaike.
It must be put on record that while some of the events struggled to put Team Nigeria on the medals table, boxing which used to be Nigeria?s stronghold failed abysmally as at least three Nigerian boxers made it to the finals but crumbled like a pack of cards when it mattered most. Ademuyiwa Kehinde, Lawal Lukman and Apochi Efetebor were out-punched by their opponents.
Consequently, the medals won by Team badminton, table tennis, karate, canoeing were like a drop of rain in an ocean. However, at the commencement of athletics, Team Nigeria shuddered back to life as the country gradually but steadily climbed up the ladder. Nigerian athletes proved their class in continental athletics winning four sprint gold at the plush Estadio Nacional do Zimpeto. USA based Segun Adigun claimed the gold in the women?s 100m hurdles. The women?s 4x100m relay team won gold, a feat which was repeated by the male team. Deborah Adewale won gold in women?s para-athletics 200m and 800m. The silver medal also went to Nigeria. The icing on the cake was in the 100m women finals where Nigeria swept all the medals at stake. 2007 winner, Damola Osayomi retained her 100m title just as Blessing Okagbare and Gloria Asunmu took silver and bronze respectively.
Interestingly, Doreen Amata retained her Algiers 2007 high jump title while her team mate Uhumnoma Osazuwa took silver. Tosin Oke showed class as she claimed gold in the men?s triple jump. Nevertheless, Samuel Okon and Salim Nurudeen won silver and bronze respectively in the 110m hurdles for men. US based Blessing was to make up for her 100m finals loss when she won gold in the long jump event.
But it was another round of mixed fortunes as the much expected medals from taekwondo got lost in transit as most of the taekwondoists failed to deliver on their promises.
The arrival of medals from athletics marked the turning point for team Nigeria. As at the time of going to press, Nigeria had qualified for finals in most of the events which were due to end in a matter of hours. The implication is that if Nigeria?s athletes would build on the solid foundation laid by athletics, Team Nigeria may realize its ambition of ending among the best three.
Already former athletes, Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo and Mary Onyali-Omagbemi have lauded the impressive performances of the athletes as they urged them to sweep the remaining medals.
According to them, if motivated, the athletes would go on to do well at the forthcoming 2012 London Olympics Games. They also hinged the performances of the athletes on personal commitment and hardwork.
Although Nigerians were thoroughly embarrassed by the lack-luster performance of Team Nigeria at the beginning of the games, Yakmut, Team Nigeria?s Chef d mission said it was a game plan. ?It?s wrong for doubting Thomases to assume that we came here for a jamboree. No. Things that are happening here are a well thought-out plan. Things are working according to plan. Our projection before the Games was to be among the first three finishers. Not to win the Games? he stated.
For most Nigerians, the recovery from Team Nigeria is a miracle and nobody should claim credit for it. It is said the turnaround in the fortunes of Nigeria is basically as a result of individual brilliance of the athletes who dug deep into the resilient Nigerian spirit to redeem the country?s image.
As the games end tomorrow in Maputo, Team South Africa which is clearly in the lead may have stopped Team Nigeria from recording another triumph in the games but it cannot be denied that last minutes efforts on the part of the athletes have saved the country from another sporting disaster. But this should not conceal the fact that it was another shoddy preparation for a major sporting event.
AllAfrica ? All the Time
Visit link:
Africa: How Individual Brilliance Saved Team Nigeria
Source: http://www.thenigeriandaily.com/2011/09/19/africa-how-individual-brilliance-saved-team-nigeria/
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