Making of Champions

There was a time not too long ago when Nigerians were without doubt Africa’s fastest men. In the eighties and nineties especially, Nigerians dominated sprinting on the continent, and at the height of our powers at the Barcelona ’92 Olympics, Nigeria was 2nd only to the mighty USA in the men’s sprints, with TWO men in each of the Olympic sprint finals – Davidson Ezinwa in the 100 metres, Oluyemi Kayode (RIP) in the 200 metres, and Olapade Adeniken in both races! Those three athletes combined with Africa’s first 10-second flat sprinter, Chidi Imoh, to win an incredible Silver medal in the men’s 4x100m at Barcelona ’92 in an African Record, behind USA’s World Record Setting team! 

Indeed, the Top African Sprinters in the 100 metres of all time read like a who’s who of Nigerian sprinting, plus Namibian legend Frankie Fredericks, 3 Ghanaians, 2 Zimbabweans and 1 South African! A whopping NINE of the 16 Africans who have run 10 seconds or less are NIGERIAN (In fact, SEVEN of the Top 9 are Nigerian):

1. Olusoji Fasuba, 9.85s (NGR)

2. Frankie Fredericks, 9.86s (NAM)

3. Ngonidzashe Makusha, 9.89s (ZIM)

4. Seun Ogunkoya, 9.92s (NGR)

5. Davidson Ezinwa, 9.94s (NGR)

6. Olapade Adeniken, 9.95s (NGR)

6. Deji Aliu, 9.95s (NGR)

8. Francis Obikwelu, 9.97s (NGR) – he later ran 9.86s while representing Portugal: the European Record till this day!

8. Uchenna Emedolu, 9.97s (NGR)

10. Daniel Effiong, 9.98s (NGR)

10. Leonard Myles-Mills, 9.98s (GHA)

10. Gabriel Mvumvure, 9.98s (ZIM)

10. Simon Magakwe, 9.98s (RSA)

14. Aziz Zakari, 9.99s (GHA)

15. Chidi Imoh, 10.00s (NGR)

15. Eric Nkansah, 10.00s (GHA)

Despite Nigeria’s rich history in the Sprints, our men are no longer the fastest in Africa – Olusoji Fasuba was the last Nigerian to run under 10 seconds in 2006, when he set the current African Record of 9.85s, making him No. 1 on this list of Africa’s Top Sprinters. He’s a Bronze medallist in the 4x100m from the Athens 2004 Olympics, where along with Aaron Egbele, he combined with 2 others in the above list (Aliu and Emedolu) to finish a very close third behind Team GB and USA. Things are very different these days – here’s a look at Africa’s Top 10 Sprinters so far in the 2014 Season, which features only ONE Nigerian (South Africa dominates the 2014 list so far with SIX Athletes):

1. Simon Magakwe, 9.98s (RSA)

2. Akani Simbine, 10.02 (RSA)

3. Gerald Phiri, 10.03s (ZAM)

4. Wilfired Koffi, 10.11s (CIV)

5. Henricho Bruintjies, 10.17s (RSA)

6. Gideon Trotter, 10.23s (RSA)

6. Emile Erasmus, 10.23s (RSA)

6. Seye Ogunlewe, 10.23s (NGR)

9. Mosito Lehata, 10.26s (LES)

10. Thando Roto, 10.30s (RSA)

So what’s gone wrong with men’s sprinting in Nigeria? The women seem to be doing very well at the moment – Blessing Okagbare is Africa’s fastest woman ever in the 100 metres, and our 4×400 metres Girls won a brilliant Bronze medal at the 1st ever World Relays in May. In the nineties, when Nigeria’s men played second fiddle to USA, the whole world thought that the Americans could never be toppled, but the Jamaicans have disproved that formerly wide-held belief in emphatic fashion! Nigeria, unfortunately has gone so far in the opposite direction that most Jamaicans today actually think that Nigerians are long distance runners! If you don’t believe this, see for yourself in this Teaser from the upcoming Nigerian feature-length documentary, Making of Champions: “The History”: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdGPwUz7Guw

With the African Championships in Athletics coming up in Marrakesh in August, how much hope can we have that the likes for Ogho-Oghene Egwero and Obinna Metu can win medals for Nigeria, even just in Africa? Even in Nigeria’s traditional stronghold of the  4×100 metre relay, it would seem on current form that the South Africans will have that nicely sewn up, provided that they get the baton round safely! The Biennial African Championships will hold in Marrakesh, Morocco in 2014, from August 10th-14th, and will also serve as qualifiers for the quadrennial Continental Cup on Sept 13/14th in the same location!

Simon Magakwe lining up against Usain Bolt at the 2011 World Championships. Magakwe is the fastest African so far in 2014, joining the “Sub-10 Sprinters’ Club” with a new PB of 9.98 seconds

Zambia’s Gerald Phiri has run a PB of 10.03 seconds in the 100 metres in 2014

With Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare not on the start-list for tonight’s 100 metres at the Rome leg of the Diamond League, we profile another African Athlete who will be racing the world’s best tonight – Cote d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahouré, the 2013 World Championship Silver Medallist in the 100 and 200 metres!

In the 20-year history of the World Championships in Athletics until 2013, Cote d’Ivoire had not won a single medal, but then they never had an athlete like Murielle Ahouré. So who is this African Sprint Queen, who along with Blessing is burning up tracks all over the world, and paving the way for a revival of Sprinting in West Africa?

Ahouré posing with Ivorien flag (Photo: Tips Magazine Officiel)

Ahouré has an interesting back story – despite being born in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire in 1987, her family moved to France when she was just two, and lived in various countries before settling in the US, where she finally took up sprinting at the age of 15. Her progression in the sport has been phenomenal – she has been running National Records in the 100 metres since 2009, and has lowered that record almost every single year since then, right down to 10.91s last year. Similarly, she also holds the Ivorian 200 metres record at 22.24s, and she is in a head-on race with Okagbare to be the first to break Mary Onyali’s 18 year-old African Record (22.07s)! Ahouré has a bullet start, and her favourite event is reportedly the 60 metres, where she set an African Record of 6.99s last year, making her the 7th fastest woman in history over the distance!

After finishing 7th and 6th in the 100 & 200 metres respectively at the London 2012 Olympics (11.00s & 22.57s), she followed that up in 2013 with Silver medals in both the 100 & 200 metres in Moscow (10.93s & 22.32s) – the first medals ever World Championship medals for Cote d’Ivoire! She also has World Indoor Silver Medals in the 60 metres in 2012 and 2014, in 7.04s and 7.01s respectively! The athlete who switches effortlessly between her native French and English in a distinctive American accent, has spoken glowingly about her pride, along with Blessing, of representing a new era of sprinting in West Africa – Murielle on the Francophone side, Blessing on the Anglophone side!

200m World Championship Medallists at Moscow 2013 (L-R – Cote d’Ivoire’s Ahoure won Silver, Jamaica’s Fraser-Pryce won GOLD and Nigeria’s Okagabre won Bronze)

Such is her popularity in her native Cote d’Ivoire, that she has even been labelled the “female Drogba”, and has had her whole nation simply transfixed on her performances, particularly during the London 2012 Olympic Games and the 2013 World Championships in Moscow. Even their football stars such as Drogba have spoken profusely about how excited they have been to watch her race and win medals for their country! Aside from the Elephants, she is undoubtedly the most famous sportsperson that her nation has produced in a generation.

Cote d’Ivoire’s only medal at the Olympics, came in 1984, when their most famous quarter-miler, Gabriel Tiacoh, won an incredible Silver medal for his nation. He tragically passed away in 1992 to viral meningitis, and now there is an annual Track meet in Abidjan held in his honour, which Ahouré attended earlier this year – who would bet against her winning Cote d’Ivoire’s next Olympic medal at Rio 2016?

Murielle Ahouré will compete in the 100 metres against Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the Rome Diamond League TODAY at 8.30pm in Nigeria (7.30pm in Cote d’Ivoire).

SuperSport 5 (DSTV 205) will show the whole meet LIVE TONIGHT from 7 – 9pm Nigerian Time (6 – 8pm Ivorien Time).

2014 IAAF Diamond League calendar

Doha, QAT – 9 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
Eugene, USA – 31 May
Rome, ITA – 5 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 11 Jun
New York, USA – 14 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 3 Jul
Paris, FRA – 5 Jul
Glasgow, GBR – 11-12 Jul
Monaco, MON – 18 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 21 Aug
Birmingham, GBR – 24 Aug
Zurich, SUI – 28 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 5 Sep

Late last night, Head Coach Stephen Keshi, much to the frenzied expectation of Super Eagles fans everywhere, released his 23-man squad for the World Cup starting in just under 10 day’s time! Only SIX players from the squad listed for the 2010 World Cup return for Brazil – Enyeama, Ejide, Yobo, Echiéjilé, Odemwingie and Mikel Obi (though Obi later pulled out and was replaced by Ideye due to injury). Yobo and Odemwingie were beneficiaries of well-publicised apologies to Keshi, after they had been frozen out of the team since the 2013 African Nation’s Cup, mainly for reasons of insubordination. Osaze fans will be hoping the World Cup will be a twitter-free zone!

NIGERIA’S FINAL 23 FOR BRAZIL 2014

GOALKEEPERS: Vincent Enyeama, Austin Ejide, Chigozie Agbim

DEFENDERS: Joseph Yobo, Elderson Echiéjilé, Juwon Oshaniwa, Godfrey Oboabona, Azubuike Egwuekwe, Kenneth Omeruo, Efe Ambrose, Kunle Odunlami

MIDFIELDERS: John Mikel Obi, Ogenyi Onazi, Ramon Azeez, Michael Uchebo, Reuben Gabriel

FORWARDS: Osaze Odemwingie, Ahmed Musa, Shola Ameobi, Emmanuel Emenike, Michael Babatunde, Victor Moses, Uche Nwofor

In true Naija-style, the number of forwards listed outnumbers the midfielders, though it should be noted that 4 of the 7 forwards can and will actually be used as wingers, so they could and should be considered as midfielders! Perhaps the biggest surprise in the list perhaps Michael Babatunde – the little known left-sided player for Volyn Lutsk in the Ukrainian Premier League did not do much to enhance his reputation at the Confederations Cup last year, and his inclusion leaves many fans wondering why 2010 World Cup veterans Obinna Nsofor (who made the provisional 30, but reportedly was struggling with an injury in camp) and Chinedu Obasi (despite recently returning from injury for Schalke) did not make the cut!

There are no surprises in DEFENCE – Keshi kept the 7 who were in the ANC title-winning squad, plus Sunshine Stars’ Kunle Odunlami. This time around Yobo may have to be satisfied with the ‘experienced substitute’ role, but don’t bet against him adding to his 95 caps – he may even get to 100 if Nigeria goes deep in this World Cup!

In MIDFIELD, Despite not playing many games this season, it would seem that Reuben Gabriel is a Keshi-favourite, as he made the cut ahead  of the likes of Parma’s Joel Obi and Nosa Igiebor of Real Betis in central midfield (both of whom have struggled with long-term injuries, so perhaps not as big as a surprise as it could have been that they were excluded). Along with Ramon Azeez, Gabriel looks set to deputise for Mikel Obi and Onazi in the heart of the midfield.

In ATTACK, it would seem that Michael Uchebo and Uche Nwofor especially played their way from the fringes into squad with their goals against Scotland last week. It is unclear if Uchebo will be used upfront or in attacking midfield (or indeed if he will see any playing time), but from the little we’ve seen of Nwofor, he has an eye for goal and could be Nigeria’s secret weapon upfront!

Who else missed out? Well, TWO players who were until now seen as Keshi favourites ultimately did not make the cut – Sunday Mba and Nnamdi Oduamadi. It has been suggested that Mba likely missed out due to his late arrival at the Super Eagles camp in London, where he did not even show up in time to play in the Scotland friendly last week (reportedly due to visa issues). After a tournament MVP performance and some stunning game-winning goals from Enugu Rangers’ Ejike Uzoenyi at the Home-based Nations’s Cup (CHAN) this year, many expected him to have booked his plane to Brazil already, but he also just misses out as one of the 7 dropped from the provisional list!

Mba & Oduamadi scored crucial goals to help Nigeria lift the African Nation’s Cup and qualify for the World Cup respectively, and along with the Super Eagles’ mainstays such as Enyeama, Emenike, Mikel Obi and Moses, they were immortalised in this video celebrating Nigeria’s ROAD TO BRAZIL – all the African Nations Cup and World Cup Qualifying Goals…in just FOUR MINUTES!

Good luck to the team at the Big Dance – congratulations to the players who made the squad, and commiserations to those who didn’t – let’s all get behind the Super Eagles to do us proud at the World Cup, and go to levels that no Nigeria team has ever reached! (read: Quarter-finals minimum!)

On April 14th 2014, nearly 300 girls in Chibok in Northeastern Nigeria were abducted from their secondary school in the dead of the night by Boko Haram militants. At the recently concluded World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, Team Nigeria got behind the #BringBackOurGirls campaign. Nigeria posted a commendable performance at these 1st ever World Relays, with a 4x400m Bronze and 4th place in the 4x100m, and it was perhaps fitting that it was our girls who posted those results:

Nigeria’s 4x400m World Relay Bronze-winning team
(L-R, Sade Abugan, Patience Okon George, Omolara Omotosho, Regina George)

Nigeria’s 4x100m World Relay 4th-place team
(L-R, Blessing Okagbare, Gloria Asumnu, Dominique Duncan, Francesca Okwara)

Nigeria’s 4x400m World Relay Team
(L-R, Isah Salihu, Noah Akwu, Tobi Ogunmola, Amechi Morton)

Over the last 2 days we have been posting #BringBackOurGirlsNow photos. The first set of photos on Wednesday featured IAAF President Lamine Diack, and Bahamian 4x400m Olympic GOLD medallist, Chris Brown, while Thursday’s instalment featured the likes of British 400m Olympic GOLD & Silver Medallist, Christine Ohuruogu MBE, and former Bahamian 400m World Champion, Tonique Williams-Darling.

#BringBackOurGirls has slowly started ebbing from the world’s consciousness, but the girls are still very missing. We believe that we must keep up the pressure on the powers that be to #BringBackOurGirlsNow. Later today, we will post our final pictures from the Bahamas to keep the Chibok girls at the forefront of our minds. We need them home now.

Nigeria’s foremost athlete Blessing Okagbare, who was part of Nigeria’s 4x100m quartet who finished 4th at the World Relays at the weekend, will be going for yet another Diamond League double this weekend in Eugene, USA, after her Long Jump and 200 metres wins on the same night in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago.

She will be contesting the Long Jump on Friday evening (May 30th) from 7pm local time (3am Nigerian time – not televised live). For the first time this season she’ll be up against the Olympic and 3-time World Champion, USA’s Brittney Reese, who beat Blessing by just 2 centimetres at last year’s World Championships. The whole field is strong – also competing is last year’s Long Jump Diamond League winner, Britian’s Shara Proctor, as well as USA’s Janay Deloach Soukup and Russia’s Darya Klishina, both of whom have jumped further than Blessing’s Personal Best of 7.00 metres during their careers. It will be interesting to see if Blessing is able to stretch her lead in the Diamond League standings for the Long Jump – she currently leads the standings, with 4 points from her win in Shanghai!

The 200 metres on Saturday at 10.13pm Nigerian time (Live on SS6) will be no less challenging. Blessing will be up against reigning 200m World Champion, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, as well as current Olympic Champion, USA’s Alyson Felix, who is in her first 200 metre race since pulling up at last year’s World Championships Finals, where Blessing got the Bronze. The Silver Medallist in that race, Cote d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahoure also races for the first time this season, so there will be plenty of competition for the first three spots, to win Diamond League points – Blessing also leads here, with 4 points from her 200m win in Shanghai!

There is no other Nigerian interest in this weekend’s Diamond League in Eugene, as 2-time Nigerian 400m Champion Regina George will not feature in the women’s 400 metres – one can only hope that we will see her again in the Diamond League soon, to replicate the form that saw her run a stunning 49.4 second split in the Bronze medal performance of Nigeria’s 4x400m women’s quartet at last week’s inaugural World Relay Championships. It would also seem that the 400m hurdles would also not feature Bahrain’s Kemi Adekoya, who just switched her allegiance from Nigeria, announcing her arrival with a new National Record for Bahrain at the Doha Diamond League earlier this month in 54.59s, the fastest time in the world this year!

For Nigerian viewers, SuperSport 6 (DSTV Channel 206) will show the Eugene Diamond League meet LIVE from 9 – 11pm Nigerian time on Saturday (May 31st). 

Blessing Okagbare will be going in the women’s 200m at 10.13pm. The women’s 400m will be at 9.24pm, while the women’s 400m hurdles will kick off the live broadcast, at 9.03pm.

Making of Champions will be bringing you special updates and reports ahead of, during and after each Diamond League event in 2014, with a particular focus on Nigeria’s leading athletes – stay tuned!

2014 IAAF Diamond League calendar

Doha, QAT – 9 May
Shanghai, CHN – 18 May
Eugene, USA – 31 May
Rome, ITA – 5 Jun
Oslo, NOR – 11 Jun
New York, USA – 14 Jun
Lausanne, SUI – 3 Jul
Paris, FRA – 5 Jul
Glasgow, GBR – 11-12 Jul
Monaco, MON – 18 Jul
Stockholm, SWE – 21 Aug
Birmingham, GBR – 24 Aug
Zurich, SUI – 28 Aug
Brussels, BEL – 5 Sep

On April 14th 2014, nearly 300 girls in Chibok in Northeastern Nigeria were abducted from their secondary school in the dead of the night by Boko Haram militants. At the recently concluded World Relay Championships in the Bahamas, the whole world of Track & Field got behind #BringBackOurGirlsNow – after posting our first series of photos yesterday, which featured IAAF President Lamine Diack, and Bahamian 4x400m Olympic GOLD medallist, Chris Brown, amongst others, here are more today, featuring British 400m Olympic GOLD & Silver Medallist, Christine Ohuruogu MBE, and former Bahamian 400m World Champion, Tonique Williams-Darling:

Christine Ohuruogu MBE, British 400m World Champion (’13, ’07), Olympic GOLD (’08) and Silver Medallist (’12)

Tonique Williams-Darling, Bahamian 400m Olympic Champion 2004

Bukola Abogunloko, Nigerian 4x400m World Relay Bronze Medallist, 2014

Tobi Ogunmola, Nigerian 400m Runner

Victoria Ohuruogu, British 400m Runner

Amechi Morton, Nigerian 400m Runner

Bambo Akani, Making of Champions Founder

Nigeria posted a commendable performance at these 1st ever World Relays, with a 4x400m Bronze and 4th place in the 4x100m, and it was perhaps fitting that it was our girls who posted those results. #BringBackOurGirls has slowly started ebbing from the world’s consciousness, but the girls are still very missing. We believe that we must keep up the pressure on the powers that be to #BringBackOurGirlsNow. Tomorrow, we will post more pictures from the Bahamas to keep the Chibok girls at the forefront of our minds. We need them home now.

It was a special night in the Bahamas and a hard fought race that saw Nigeria’s 4x400m Women take the Bronze Medal in a stunning time of 3:23.41, the fastest any Nigerian Quartet has run since the Falilat Ogunkoya-led team of the Sydney 2000 Olympics! Team USA more or less led from start to finish (3:21.73), but the Nigerian Quartet of Sade Abugan, Regina George, Omolara Omotosho and Patience Okon George, fought the Jamaicans (3:23.26) tooth and nail for the 2nd place, right till the very end!

“Look at the turbo being applied by Regina George round the bend – another storming leg for Nigeria!” the commentator excitedly blasts on the 2nd leg – we’re getting used to hearing that about this @DivaOnTheTrack, she did similar on the anchor legs at the 2013 World Championships and the Penn Relays in April. Her split on the 2nd leg was a mind boggling 49.4 seconds (the fastest of any athlete in the whole race)! Abugan led the team off with 52.30s, while Omotosho and P. George ran 50.9s & 50.81s splits respectively to bring the Bronze home for Team Nigeria! 

The awesomeness of this performance from the whole TEAM cannot be overstated – it is the first RELAY medal for Team Nigeria since the Beijing 2008 Olympics, and it is already the 3rd fastest Season for Nigeria in our history of running the women’s 4×4. Only the Silver Medal winning team of Atlanta ’96 (African Record Holders at 3:21.04) and the Sydney 2000 team (3:22.99) have ever run faster. This bodes extremely well for Team Nigeria for the Commonwealth Games this year, where they can now consider themselves a GOLD medal contender against the likes of Jamaica!

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We are likely witnessing a new dawn in Nigerian Athletics for the women’s 400 metres. At Making of Champions, we have long since considered Current 2-time 400m Champion Regina George as one to watch for the Rio 2016 Olympics. But now we must start looking at this whole team, not only as Relay medal contenders at the next Olympics, but also as possible semi-finalists and finalists in the individual 400 metres at Rio 2016! Bukola Abogunloko is the fifth member of this Relay team, who also picks up a Bronze medal after running the third leg in the heats!

Less than 2 hours later, Regina George and Patience Okon George (no relation) returned to the track, joining Dominique Duncan and Francesca Okwara for Nigeria’s first ever 4×200 metre run! Although they only finished in 7th, they set a new National Record of 1:33.71 by virtue of being the first ever quartet to contest the event for Nigeria! Something tells us that this is one NR which will not stand for very long – 2015 World Relay Championships: Team Nigeria is coming!