THE MOVEMENT!

In late 2012, independent filmmaker Bambo Akani started the journey of making the documentary Making of Champions: “The History”, after being tired of seeing Nigeria, blessed with so many people of natural athletic ability, underperform at the pinnacle of sports, at the Olympic Games.

Here’s the Title Sequence (the first 2 minutes of the film)! 

Making of Champions: “The History” is a feature length documentary charting the rise and fall of Nigerian Athletics. The film, which has now debuted in private screenings all across the world (in London, Lagos, Abuja and Atlanta!), chronicles Nigeria’s full Olympic Medal History in Track & Field, and lays the foundation for how Nigeria can return to reckoning on the world stage and even dominate the sport in years to come! It features many of Nigeria’s Olympic Stars of time past, such as Innocent Egbunike, Mary Onyali-Omagbemi, Falilat Ogunkoya-Omotayo, Enefiok Udo-Obong, Francis Obikwelu and Glory Alozie!

The most populous black nation in the world, with over 170 million people, returned from the London 2012 Olympics with a sum total of ZERO medals – the first time Nigeria had not won an Olympic medal since Seoul ’88. In truth, the decline has been steady since the Sydney 2000 Olympics. That was the scene of the last of our 3 Olympic Gold medals, in the 4x400m, a race in which Enefiok Udo-Obong ran an awesome anchor leg to overtake the Jamaicans and the Bahamians for Gold! It was also the scene of our last Olympic Silver medal, won by Glory Alozie in the 100 metre hurdles. Indeed, Nigeria has only won 4 Olympic Bronze medals in Athletics since the turn of the century (2 each at Athens ’04 and Beijing ’08), a paltry return for a country such great sporting potential!

The ultimate goal for the Making of Champions: “The History” is to awaken Nigerians and West Africans to the vast potential of the country and region in Track and Field, rekindle the interest for the sport, and start a movement that will enable Team Nigeria to once again compete with the best in the world! Why have we fallen so far? How can we get back to winning medals on the global stage? What does it take to make champions in Track and Field? This documentary aims to find out how – join us on this journey that has taken us all over Nigeria – Lagos, Warri, Calabar, and literally half way across the world, to Portugal, Spain, the UK, the US, the Bahamas, and arguably the “Home of Champions” – Jamaica!

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Making of Champions Limited (www.makingofchamps.com) is a Sports Marketing, Management and Consulting Company that has now been set up to elevate the profile and performance of Sports in Nigeria and the rest of Africa, and is dedicated to maximising the potential that sports has to bring the country, and the continent on a whole, together. Making of Champion’s mission to revolutionise Sports in Africa is certainly not limited to Track & Field. The company has already provided consulting services at the highest level of sports in Nigeria, presenting critical frameworks for creating High Performance Systems for the Sports Ministry, and the Athletics, Boxing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling National Federations.

With Football’s World Cup coming up in 2014, Africa’s representatives are hopeful that this could be the continent’s best World Cup yet, and Making of Champions will follow the journey of Africa’s representatives as they prepare for the big dance! The Road to Brazil is the 2nd documentary from the MAKING OF CHAMPIONS’ stable!! Come with us on the journey of following the progress of Nigeria’s Super Eagles as they prepare for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil! In this Road to Brazil teaser, we journey to Salvador, Brazil’s third largest city – a city infused with food, culture, language and religion heavily influenced by Yoruba slaves taken there hundreds of years ago! We were in Salvador during the World Cup draw, and the World Cup FEVER and EXCITEMENT was palpable!!