Making of Champions

“This film has changed me.” These were the words of Innocent Egbunike, Nigeria’s Head Athletics Coach from the London 2012 Olympics, after the Atlanta viewing of Making of Champions: “The History”, on Monday. The film was once again very well received, and generated lots of discussion afterwards, on all the possible ways forward for Nigeria in Athletics. Here are some pictures from the roundtable discussion which followed the film viewing, and lasted well over an hour!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Many thanks to the Parks & Recreation Office in Atlanta for hosting the event, and to Innocent Egbunike, for gracing us with his presence. He features quite prominently in the film, so it was fantastic having him there to support. He also attended with one of the athletes he’s currently training – Reggie Witherspoon, who happens the be a 4x400m GOLD medallist for the USA, from the Beijing ’08 Olympic Games!

The next stop is London tomorrow! Here are all the details you need – it’s the last stop on the International Roadshow (at least for 2013), and Glory Alozie, an Olympic Silver Medallist for Nigeria, has flown in all the way from Spain to attend tomorrow’s screening – you don’t want to miss it!

LONDON, UK, with Glory Alozie!!! (Facebook Event Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/218165215029279/?source=1)

Date: Saturday December 14^th 

Time: 7 – 9.30pm

Venue: The Chapel, Jesus House, 112 Brent Terrace, Brent Cross, London, NW2 1LT

 Glory Alozie, another one of the stars of the documentary, will be joining the Atlanta viewing! Alozie is the last person in all of Nigeria, to win anIndividual Olympic Medal on the Track, when she won Silver in the 100 metre hurdles at Sydney 2000. In 2001, she switched nationalities to compete for Spain and has lived there since – but in a monumental show of support for the film, Alozie will be flying in from her base in Spain to join us at the London viewing! Her achievements while she represented Nigeria are no small feats either!:

– 100m Hurdles World Championship Silver Medallist (1999)

– 100m Hurdles Olympic Silver Medallist (2000)

– African & Commonwealth 100m Hurdles Record Holder (since 1999!)

Refreshments will be served at the beginning, and Q&A with the Director and Glory Alozie will follow the screening tomorrow! Thank you for your attention, and we look forward to seeing you at one of the viewings!

Images from the Abuja  screening of  Making of Champions: “The  History”, including the Director Bambo Akani sitting  and chatting with the new Performance Directors Angie Taylor and Eric Campbell (front row)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

On Tuesday, Nigeria unveiled to the world the signings of two new performance directors to overhaul Sports in the country, Angie Taylor and Eric Campbell. Angie Taylor, a Track & Field coach for over 20 years at various American Universities and USA head coach at the 2003 World Championships, has been hired to oversee Athletics (Track & Field), Boxing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling at the High Performance Centre in Abuja. Eric Cambpell, who was previously a Track & Field Coach at Georgia State and the Youth and Junior National Team Coach for Saudi Arabia, was hired as the Performance Director of Athletics specifically.

These hires could signal a turning point for Sports Performance in Nigeria, and are clear indications that the current Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abduallahi, is intent on making a big impact in a sector where Nigeria has long performed below its potential. Indeed, besides football, Africa’s most populous nation with 170 million people has not even begun to scratch the surface of its sporting potential.

One might recall that in August, immediately following the World Championships, the Honourable Minister held a 3-day strategy session, flying in three consultants from London (including Making of Champions Founder, Bambo Akani) to help chart the course for installing a High Performance System for Sports in Nigeria. At the time, he boldly stated that there would be some important announcements come November, and he has proved true to his word.

“The Fire can only come with Reward” – Bambo Akani answering a question during the Q&A which followed the Abuja screening of the Making of Champions film:

Somewhat fortuitously, the arrival of the new foreign Performance Directors in Nigeria coincided with the Abuja screening on Monday of the Making of Champions: “The History” documentary about Nigerian Athletics, that we’ve spent the last year making. As such, the two new hires attended the screening as guests of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) President and Technical Advisor, Solomon Ogba and Commodore Omatseye Nesiama, who were also in attendance.

AFN Technical Director, Commodore Nesiama commenting on the film after the viewing: “The Making of Nigerian Champions begins now!”

It will be very interesting to see how things begin to unfold in Nigerian Sports in the coming months and years. The new Performance Directors will need at least one Olympic cycle (4 years) to get Nigeria firing on all cylinders in the respective sports they have been mandated to focus on. The one question that will have to be answered, if the goal is for Nigeria to, for example, one day rival the Jamaicans and USA in Athletics on the world stage, is whether two American Performance Directors can take us to that promised land – only time will tell. One thing is for certain, the whole world will be watching, with baited breath, to see what Nigeria does, as we enter a new era for Sports in the country – let the Making of Nigerian Champions begin!

The journey we embarked on almost exactly a year ago, to understand why and how Nigerian Athletics has fallen by the wayside on the world stage, has reached a critical and momentous phase. The Making of Champions Film, “The History”, is now ready for private screenings, with the intention of getting it on TV across the world next year!

Making of Champions – “The History” is an 80-minute film capturing Nigeria’s full Olympic medal history in Athletics (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! Here’s the Title Sequence (the first 2 minutes of the film)! 

It is with great pleasure and anticipation that we embark on the Making of Champions International Roadshow, to host private viewings of the film in Nigeria, the UK and the US! Starting next week, we will be on the road to show the film to the key stakeholders for Sports and Athletics in Nigeria, to Corporate Nigeria, and to friends, family and well-wishers around the globe!

We’ll be starting this first phase of private viewings in London on Mon Nov 11^th! Please see the details of the viewings in each city we’re coming to. For the November viewings, please RSVP by Sunday Nov 10^th to makingofchampions1@gmail.com (with the viewing venue and date, your name and the names of any guests you’re bringing) to be added to the guest list for your chosen viewing.

Space is limited, particularly in Lagos and Abuja, so please do RSVP as soon as possible to avoid any possible disappointment!

LONDON, UK

Date: Monday November 11th

Time: 7 – 9.30pm

Venue: The Chapel, Jesus House, 112 Brent Terrace, Brent Cross, London, NW2 1LT

LAGOS, NIGERIA

Date: Wednesday November 13^th 

Time: 7 – 9.30pm

Venue: SS Lounge, 7 Sapara Williams Close, off Idowu Martins Street, Victoria Island, Lagos

ABUJA, NIGERIA

Date: Monday November 18^th 

Time: 5:30 – 8pm 

Venue: Nicon Luxury Hotel, Plot 903 Tafawa Balewa Way Area 11, Garki, Abuja

ATLANTA, USA

Date: Monday December 9^th

Venue & Time TBD

LONDON, UK

Date: Saturday December 14^th 

Venue & Time TBD

Q&A with the Director will follow each screening! Thank you for your attention, and we look forward to seeing you at one of the viewings!

Many thanks,

Bambo Akani

Director, Making of Champions: “The History”

CEO, Making of Champions Limited

http://www.makingofchamps.com

Now that this year’s athletics season is over, I wanted to leave you all with perhaps one of the most outstanding performers in Nigeria’s colours in 2013. Given Blessing Okagbare’s double medal haul at the World Champs broke Nigeria’s 14-year medal drought in that competition, one might be forgiven for thinking that Nigeria has become a one-athlete nation. Not so. Regina George is an up and coming star for Nigeria, and I’ve made the following teaser celebrating her performances for Team Naija over the last 2 years – she is “One-to-Watch” for Nigeria in the run up to the 2016 Olympics!

In an era where some Nigerian athletes have switched to compete for other countries over the years, what is amazing about Regina’s story is that she has gone the other way – she was already competing for Team USA at the World Junior (U-20) Championships in 2010. Interestingly, even though there were a couple of Nigerian girls who beat her in that competition in the semi-finals and final (She finished 7^th in the final behind two Nigerians), her progression into Nigeria’s best quarter miler today has been impressive to say the least, and could potentially be meteoric, if she continues the same way over the next few years.

What I especially like about her attitude to competing for Nigeria despite some of the obvious challenges is how she has embraced her colleagues in Team Nigeria as family, as she expresses in the following interview in Moscow, which was conducted after her amazing 49.8s split in the 4x400m Semi-Finals at the recently concluded World Championships. Even though her Personal Best in the individual 400m event is still 50.84s, her sub-50 split in the relays is perhaps an indication that there could be much more to come from Regina…

When I caught up with Regina in Calabar during the Nigerian trials in June, she had just broken 51 seconds for the first time, with 50.99s, which brought her a second consecutive Nigerian title – she’s been Nigeria’s best quarter-miler from the moment she switched from the US. Now that she’s lowered it further to 50.84s, her next goal in the next few years will undoubtedly the 50 second barrier. If she can become a consistent sub-50 runner by the next Olympics, then she just could be in the mix for medals by then. Ofcourse nothing is guaranteed in sport, so one can only wish her the best in her continuing progression as a world class athlete! Regina’s ambition is clear – even though Falilat Ogunkoya’s Nigerian and African Record is an incredible 49.10s, she has made that her target – one can only hope that she is able to achieve that in her career eventually. Here’s to hoping that she can even go beyond Rio 2016 and make it all the way until Tokyo 2020!

Hopefully, as Nigeria starts to discover and develop more world class athletes, there will be an increase in corporate endorsements and sponsorships for these athletes. Given the relatively small sums of prize money and appearance fees in Athletics, we should remember that for the elite athlete, the major earning potential over the course of their fleeting careers will come from endorsements. One study shows that the average earnings for a name recognition US Track & Field star will be close to half a million dollars a year, and this mostly comes from shoe contracts. At the very top of the sport, it was widely reported that Usain Bolt made $20 million last year, mostly from endorsements – $9 million came from his deal with Puma alone. In particular, Nigerian companies need to throw their support around athletes like Regina, who have the potential to bring glory to Nigeria on a global stage. Once we look after our own, the international endorsements from the likes of Puma and Nike would come flooding in for Nigerian athletes within a few years!

Thankfully, some people in Nigeria are beginning to take notice of Regina’s performances in the Green-White-Green. Immediately following the World Championships last month it was reported in Nigerian newspapers that Delta State’s sports loving governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, was throwing his support behind her to go for medals at the next Olympics, much in the same way he has provided financial support for Blessing Okagbare. This is a great development, and one can only hope that Nigerian companies will follow suit and throw their support behind our athletes as well!  

Hi All,

In celebration of the end of the Athletics season (the final Diamond League meet is in Brussels tomorrow!), I would like to share with you my latest article, Could the next Usain Bolt be from Africa?, which was published in the Mandate Men’s Conference Magazine released yesterday, for the ongoing Mandate Men’s Conference at Jesus House in London.

Everyone has been asking me when the Making of Champions documentary will be released – for now, all I can say is that I hope to be able to make a definitive announcement about this in the next couple of months. The project was initially envisioned as a 4-part series, or as a one hour or feature length film, but we are currently starting conversations in Nigeria about converting it into a full season show, such has the project grown over the 9 months we’ve been shooting!  So please do bear with us, and I hope to bring you some good news about Making of Champions soon!

I think that this article is a very nice way to summarise the progress we’ve made since we started this project, and a great way to wrap up the season, especially considering Mr Bolt’s comments yesterday at the Brussels press conference, confirming that he intends to retire after the 2016 Olympics (assuming he continues to dominate until then ofcourse). Considering the Jamaican conveyor belt of sprinters, with the likes of Yohan Blake, Nesta Carter, Nickel Ashmeade, Warren Weir and Kemar Bailey-Cole all waiting in the wings, the next Usain Bolt is odds on to be a Jamaican – but could Africa bring itself into the conversation by 2016? Read on – only time will tell!

Could the next Usain Bolt hail from Africa?

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)

Nigeria’s Blessing Okagbare and Cote d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahoure (both double medalists at the recently concluded World Championships) are testaments of talent existing in West Africa, but both have needed the American collegiate system to begin realizing their immense potential. When will Africa, like Jamaica, stop outsourcing the development of its best talents to America? When will we take action? Only time will tell, but I am hopeful that Making of Champions will not just be a documentary that talks about what needs to be done, but a movement that galvanizes people into action. This is not just about restoring some global pride and glory to a nation and region (which would obviously be nice), but also about materially impacting the lives of people through participation in sports, and thus giving thousands of youths a way out of poverty. After all, there are thousands of footballers in West Africa who may never become football superstars, but just might have enough sprinting potential to be the next Usain Bolt!

Note: Will update with better quality pics when I have returned from my travels!

Over the weekend I was very privileged to be part of a strategy session on Nigerian sports hosted by the country’s Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi. This 3 day retreat was held in Abuja from Friday through to Sunday and was arranged by the Honourable Minister following the completion of the World Championships a week ago. During the Championships I received a congratulatory message from the Minister for my blog article about Blessing Okagbare winning Nigeria’s first World Championship medal since 1999 in the Long Jump – until now I am unsure how exactly he came across the blog. If that was a surprise, one can imagine my initial disbelief when the day after the Championships ended I received a follow up email from his special assistant inviting me as a consultant for the strategy session in Nigeria by the end of the week!

Despite my recent chops as a filmmaker and blogger (both of which got the Minister’s attention), travelling as a consultant to Nigeria has become second nature to me over the last year, so I quickly pulled together some slides and on Thursday night, 3 days after the session was called for, the National Sports Commission flew me out with two other sports consultants from London to Abuja to join the retreat at the Nicon Luxury Hotel. This was no ordinary session – the Minister had called for the Federation Presidents (or other representative) of the 5 sports which have been identified as the highest potential medal sports for Nigeria – Athletics, Boxing, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wrestling. This was likely the most high profile meeting about sports in Nigeria since the session that immediately followed London 2012, where Nigeria went home with no Olympic medals for the first time since 1988. The Director General of the Sports Commission, Gbenga Elegbeleye and his special advisor, 5 time Olympian Mary Onyali were in attendance as were Yakmut Al-Hassan, Bolaji Ojo-Oba and Dr Abdulkadir Mu’azu from the Sports Commission. Representing the Federations we had Solomon Ogba (Athletics President), Commodore Omatseye Nesiama (Athletics), George Ashiru (Taekwondo President), Azania Omo-Agege (Boxing) and Emmanuel Osoma (Weightlifting), to mention a few. The Wrestling Federation President, Daniel Igali is a World and Olympic Champion for Canada, and he cut short his trip there by 3 days to attend this session in Abuja. It was clear to everyone that the Minister meant business – he clearly does not want a repeat of London in Rio!

The agenda for the session was setting up a High Performance System for Nigeria, and it was very quickly agreed that the new system should have both Elite and Developmental components, to support both the urgent need ensure we get medals of any colour in Rio 2016, while also laying the groundwork for more medals in 2020. I am pleased to say that my contribution was quite significant – on the first day I presented the pyramid framework for thinking about High Performance Systems in Sports. Basically, a good system should have the wide base and good depth (that is, as many people as possible partaking in the sport from a young age) and it should be designed such that the very best rise through the system at each stage to get to the top of the pyramid – this framework was well received and the Federations have already started adopting it as the template for their respective high performance systems.

On the second day I presented slides showing the business models of how Athletics is funded in the US, UK and Jamaica. Interestingly, both UK Athletics and USA Track & Field have publicly available financial statements, so I stressed the importance of that level transparency which we have to aspire to in Nigeria to pave the way for increased corporate sponsorship in sports. On the final day, I kicked off the session with a video of an interview I conducted with a rising star of Nigerian Athletics who only switched from competing for the US a couple of years ago. I used it to emphasise the importance of getting our athletes their training grants on time, and to show how we need to start marketing them better so that Nigerians actually know that we have some good athletes, and to increase the athletes’ chances of securing corporate endorsements in Nigeria and abroad!

Obviously there was plenty more discussed over the 3 days and such was the passion and energy that the Minister brought to the discussion, it does give me hope that some real change is on the way in Sports in Nigeria. Particularly, watch out for some key announcements regarding the High Performance System for Nigeria before the end of the year. IF this system works, it could be completely transformational for Sports in Nigeria. Athletics (Track & Field) did somewhat dominate the proceedings during the session – for me the intense focus on that sport re-affirms my staunch belief that Nigeria can dominate Athletics globally in a few years IF we get the system working properly. This is not to discount the other 4 priority sports – Nigeria’s first three Olympic medals came in Boxing, which has brought us 6 medals in total (compared to 13 Olympic medals from Athletics).  In more recent years we’ve won a medal each in Weightlifting and Taekwondo, and of course Daniel Igali won Gold in Wrestling, albeit for Canada. Clearly Nigeria has a strong potential in power-based sports, so I’ll be keenly watching to see if we can capitalise on the momentum started by these meetings to return to winning ways at the next Olympics!

Undoubtedly, I look forward to other sports coming into the High Performance System discussions at some point. Particularly, it would be great to see Nigeria build on the first ever appearance by the basketball team at the Olympics in London (D’Tigers are currently in Cote d’Ivoire contesting the FIBA Afrobasket Championships in the quest to become African Champions for the very first time)! I think Table Tennis has always been popular within Nigeria, so it would be great to see the country produce more Olympians in that sport too. All in all, it was an absolute honour to be included in the very highest level of discussions on sports in Nigeria, and I wish the Honourable Minister the very best in getting Nigeria’s High Performance System working! Ultimately, the system has to be an enabling environment for the youth to play sports to the highest level and get an education while doing so, and a transparent environment for Corporate Nigeria, because as we can see from most countries around the world, it is impossible for Sports to thrive without corporate sponsorship which remains the vast majority of sports funding the world over!

Given the mixed fortunes of some of our former sportspeople after retirement, the minister has already suggested what should be the topic for my next documentary: “What does life after sports hold for our ex-sportsmen and women?” That’s a good one, so you never know, watch this space…

Here are the final snippets from my radio interview on Sportsline on Hot102FM in Jamaica last week Monday. The show was hosted by Wayne Lewis and Trudy-Ann Williams,  while Bruce James, the President of MVP track club (where Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce trains), also made an appearance as we discussed the recently concluded World Championships:

The first snippet is about the continuing misconception in Jamaica that all Africans (and by definition Nigerians) are long distance runners, which I was once again quizzed on – I made a teaser about this observation from our Jamaica trip and I also blogged about this just before the World Championships to try to set this notion right! Perhaps I will have to release a new video teaser soon to address this once and for all…watch this space! 😉

We also discussed Jamaica’s current pedigree in sprinting – Wayne tries to get controversial and critical about Jamaica’s performance at the World Championships, and I eventually come to Bruce James’ rescue (not that he needed me to!)

Finally, Bruce James and I both give our high and low points from the World Championships – Enjoy!

Last night I made an appearance on Sportsline, a Jamaican radio show on their Hot102FM channel to review the just concluded World Championships. I shared the airwaves with none other than MVP President Bruce James who focused on Jamaica’s 6 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze medal performances at the Championships, while I brought the outsider’s perspective, speaking mainly on the double medal feats of Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria and Murielle Ahoure of Cote d’Ivoire.

In this 9 minute section of the show, we discuss the Making of Champions documentary, the blog, investment in athletics in Nigeria, and Bruce James quizzes me on why Nigeria entered Blessing into 4 different events (100m, 200m, Long Jump and 4x100m) for these Championships! Click on the below to listen to our discussion…enjoy! (You might be wondering how come I appeared on a radio show in Jamaica yesterday? Well, the station dialled me into the discussion from my current base in the UK!)

Bruce James is more or less one of the founding fathers of the age of the Professional Track Club in Jamaica, after playing a pivotal role in setting up MVP Track & Field Club in 1999 – MVP is home to the likes of Shelly-An Fraser-Pryce, the double Olympic 100m Champion who became the first woman in World Championship history to win triple Gold in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m!

Audio is courtesy of Hot102FM in Jamaica. Watch out in the next few days as I release more snippets from our Sportsline conversation yesterday!

On Friday evening, Blessing Okagbare won her second World Championship medal in a week – bronze in the 200 metres – to ensure that Nigerians for the first time since 1999 had something to celebrate at the end of these championships. Indeed, Blessing single-handedly ensured that Nigeria equaled its best ever medal tally of 1 Silver and 1 Bronze at a World Championship, from 1999 when Glory Alozie took Silver in the 100m hurdles and Francis Obikwelu took Bronze in the 200 metres. Sadly for Nigeria, Alozie and Obikwelu, its two best athletes from that era, switched to Spain and Portugal respectively, both in 2001, creating a void which has since been left unfilled until now!

Blessing’s feat ensured that she became the first ever Nigerian to become a double individual medallist at either the World Champs or the Olympics, and doing it within the same championships should be especially commended. Blessing had the busiest schedule of any athlete in Moscow, competing in the 100m, 200m and Long Jump, and but for that hectic schedule, she may have also medalled in the 100 metres – I am extremely happy for her that she won that Bronze in the 200 metres and put to bed any suggestions that even I had prematurely raised about her not performing when it mattered the most. This lady is truly a Championship performer, and her 2 medals from 3 events in a packed week is more than enough evidence of that!

Including her Long Jump bronze from the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Blessing is already well on her way to becoming Nigeria’s most decorated athlete of all time. I would love to see her continue to attack all 3 events at major championships, but she may have to decide in the future to forego one (maybe the long jump?) to improve her chances in the other two. Certainly if the women’s long jump is not moved from the day before the 100 metre final in future championships, that might continue to hamper her best prospects in the marquis sprint event. Perhaps organisers could adjust the schedule to accommodate an athlete as supremely gifted as Blessing? In the past this has been considered for the likes of Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson, in their bids in years gone by to win multiple events at major championships!

Cote d’Ivoire’s Murielle Ahoure also had a fantastic championship, finishing with Silver behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in both the 100m and 200m. This lady has stepped up massively from her 7^th and 6^th place finishes at the Olympics last year, and these are her country’s first ever medals at a World Championships in the 30 year history of the event! Both ladies can only gain more confidence from their medals, and personally I am looking forward to a great rivalry between them for years to come. Granted, my prediction that at least one of them would break the 200 metre African record on Friday night did not come to pass, but I look forward to seeing both of them in the coming years going for both Mary Onyali’s 200 metre record (22.07s) and Blessing’s 100m African record (10.79s)! Both of them will be looking towards Rio 2016, and the possibility of breaking Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s dominance in the 100m (and now the 200m) by then!

If Ahoure and Okagbare continue to develop and progress the way that they have so far, they could well lead the way for the renaissance of world class sprinting (and jumping) in Africa. That said, the incredible successes of these two great  athletes should not paper over the fact that countries like Cote d’Ivoire (with 23 million people) and Nigeria especially (with over 170 million people) could and should be doing a lot better in Athletics. It should be noted that both Murielle and Blessing as sprinters are products of the American collegiate system. Obviously Blessing’s Olympic Bronze medal in 2008 showed that with her natural talent she had the potential to become a big star, but she would not have had the opportunity to blossom the way she has if she had stayed in Nigeria. There is simply no programme in Nigeria or elsewhere in West Africa that allows for natural athletic talents to be moulded into world class performers – think of how many people with talent similar to Kirani James or even Usain Bolt who will never be discovered or developed in Africa? Perhaps it is time for Africa to take a leaf out of Jamaica’s book and stop outsourcing the development of its athletes to the American college system?

Here’s another look at my video short entitled “Long Distance”, showing how far behind Jamaica that Nigeria has fallen in Athletics – we used to be on par back in the nineties!

Before assessing the medal chances of Murielle Ahoure and Blessing Okagbare in the 200 metres starting tomorrow, it would be remiss of me not to hail Ahoure’s Silver medal in the 100 metres on Monday night – the first medal of any colour for Cote d’Ivoire in the 30-year history of the World Championships! Despite not being mentioned as a medal contender by most commentators, Murielle’s record making Silver medal should not come as a big surprise. Along with Blessing, she has been steadily improving over the last couple of years, leading the way for African athletes to mix it with the best in the world. Ahoure actually finished 7^th and 6^th respectively in the 100m and 200m finals at London 2012, so after stepping up to Silver in Moscow, she will go into the 200m tomorrow with full confidence that she can get a medal there as well. In a country that usually only has their football stars such as Didier Drogba and Yaya Toure to cheer about, she is quickly becoming a national celebrity in her own right. Her interview following her Silver medal performance is in French, but having lived in the US since she was a teenager, she also speaks English fluently – this was her after the heats on Sunday:

So which of Ahoure and Okagbare carry Africa’s best hope for a medal in the 200 metres? This is definitely a tight call. Both have run three 200m races each this season, and both are unbeaten. Both have beaten Shelly-An Fraser-Pryce over this distance in the Diamond League this season, Murielle in Monaco, and Blessing in Birmingham. Ahoure even beat Olympic Champion Allyson Felix in Rome, with the absolute swagger of a woman who knows that she’s in great form this season. Every time Ahoure steps on to the track and runs a Personal Best, she sets a new National Record – this was the case with the 22.36s in Rome and the 22.24s in Monaco, which is the second fastest time in the world this year so far, behind the 22.13s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ran at the Jamaican trials. One can certainly not count Ahoure out of the medal reckoning in the 200 metres – watch out for yet another National Record, which she will probably need to get a medal!

Blessing will be looking to quickly get over the disappointment of her 6^th place finish in the 100 metres on Monday night, to grab a much needed medal in the 200 metres. For the form that she’s been in this year, it would be unwise to discount her despite things not going according to plan for her in the 100 – I have been saying since we started seeing her coming from behind to win 100 metre races at the London Olympics last year, that the 200 metre would most likely become her more dominant event, and now she has a fantastic opportunity to show just that. Blessing set her 200m PB of 22.31s in her first race of the outdoor season in California in April, and with a PB and new African Record of 10.79s in the shorter sprint, I really do think that Mary Onyali’s 200m African Record of 22.07s is under threat from Blessing – I think she has the potential to go under 22 seconds, and that certainly would be more than enough for some colour of medal.

It goes without saying that the 200 metres is going to be billed by all commentators as a head-to-head duel between Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. It would certainly be foolish to discount the London 2012 Gold and Silver medallists at this distance. If Allyson runs at her best, she is probably unbeatable, but has only won two of her four races this season, surprisingly losing to newcomer Kimberlyn Duncan at the US trials, and to Ahoure in that race in Rome. She did win her final outing before Moscow at the London Anniversary Games, so maybe she is coming back into form at the right time. If she can return to her Personal Best form (21.69s) then she will likely not be stopped from winning back her 200m world title that she relinquished to Veronica Campbell-Brown 2 years ago in Daegu. As for Shelly-Ann, she is in such imperious form, winning the 100m so emphatically on Monday night, that one can be forgiven for assuming that the 200m will be a straight fight between her and Felix. But can she sustain her incredible 100m speed over the longer distance against some of the taller girls, like Blessing? Only time will tell, but surely it would be a surprise to see her finish outside of the medals.

One can also not discount the other Americans, Kimberlyn Duncan and Jeneba Tarmoh, who should also certainly make the final, and the Bahamians Anthonique Strachan and Shaunae Miller, who are my dark horses for this event. Strachan especially, who was the double 100m and 200m Junior (U-20) World Champion last year, should also make the final and from then on anything is possible – she is fifth fastest in the world this year with 22.32s so perhaps she may even threaten the Bahamian Record of 22.19s set all the way back in 1999 by one Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie. Miller is probably a year behind Strachan in terms of development, so I expect she would be happy to just make the final. I don’t really expect an individual medal for either of them at these championships, but expect great things from both of them in the future – having travelled to the Bahamas this year to watch the Caribbean Junior and Youth Games (CARIFTA), I can attest that the amount of talent the Bahamas is churning out with a population of only 350,000 people is simply astonishing!

Does my analysis mean that Blessing and Murielle are fighting for just one medal, likely to be Bronze? Perhaps, but not necessarily. It would take an upset of one of the huge favourites for Africa to get two medals in an event in which no African woman has ever won a World Championship medal, but we have already seen huge upsets this week, with Amantle Montsho losing the 400m by a nose to Christine Ohuruogu, and Olympic Champion Kirani James being comprehensively defeated by Lashawn Merritt at the same distance. One thing’s almost certain for me – Mary Onyali’s African Record will be up for grabs come Friday, but will it be broken by Ahoure or Okagbare? Or indeed by both of them? Who will come out on top in this 200m sub-plot, the battle for the title “Queen of African Sprinting”? After the 100 metres, it’s already one-nil to Ahoure. Which of them will medal in the 200 metres? I for one certainly hope that it can be both of them!

Okagbare goes in Heat 2 in the first round of the 200 metres at 8.02am (British Summer Time / Nigerian Time) tomorrow, while Ahoure is in Heat 7 at 8.37am. The semi-finals are also tomorrow, from 4.45pm, and the Final is at 6.15pm on Friday. Go Team Naija, and Go Team CIV!