Making of Champions

Blessing Okagbare, Africa’s Sprint Queen and 100m Record Holder, blasted to the Commonwealth Games 100m Title at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Monday night in 10.85 seconds,  the second fastest time of her career and a new Commonwealth Games record!

Okagbare, who has concentrated more on the 200 metres this season, came into the Games as No. 3 in the Commonwealth this season with 10.97s, with both Trinidad & Tobago’s Michelle-Lee Ahye (10.85) and Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown (10.86) ahead of her in the pecking order. However, following Ahye’s withdrawal due to injury after the Heats, the stage was set for a virtual two-horse race between Okagbare and Campbell-Brown. Blessing laid a marker in the Semi-Final with a very easily run 10.93s, which signalled the kind of form that she has come into at the business end of the season.

In the final, Campbell-Brown, twice the 200m Olympic Champion but never a Commonwealth Games Champion, was able to stay with Okagbare for the first 50 metres, but after that it was all about Blessing all the way to the line! Following the race she was understandably ecstatic at winning her first major global title, and attributed her ability to remain calm under the pressure from Campbell-Brown to her coach John Smith, who told her to remain patient throughout the race – how does one remain patient for 10.85 SECONDS?

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So what’s next for Nigeria’s favourite daughter? Well, before the week runs out she will be aiming to become the first Nigerian to win 3 GOLD medals at a single Commonwealth Games! This will not come easy – ordinarily, she would be the favourite to win both the 200m (which she has favoured this season) and the Long Jump (in which she won her first global medal – Olympic Bronze at Beijing ’08), but the Games schedule does not favour her – the finals of the 200m and Long Jump are BOTH on Thursday night, within a couple of hours of each other!

That said, don’t bet against her making a successful attempt to double up on the same night, even though she has somewhat de-prioritised the Long Jump this season. Perhaps she can win it in 2 or 3 Jumps, rest for an hour, then go and claim the 200m Crown as well, just as she did in the Shanghai leg of the Diamond League earlier this season? With the imperious form she’s in right now, we wouldn’t be against her doing just that! And we haven’t even mentioned the 4x100m relay starting on Friday. It will be a very busy week in Glasgow for Africa’s premiere athlete – will she have 4 medals by the end of it? We’ll know soon enough!

Nigeria’s 4x400m U-20 team at the recently concluded World Junior Championships in Eugene on Saturday was the centre of much ridicule when the runner on the 2nd leg, after receiving the baton with Nigeria leading in the final heat to reach the final, bizarrely stayed in his lane throughout his run!

Anyone who watches Athletics will know that only the first 500 metres is run in lanes in the 4×400 metres – it has a longer stagger than the individual 400 metres which unwinds after the athlete on the 2nd leg has run 100 metres, with everyone moving into lane one for the rest of the race! Here’s part of the race:

 Simply incredible that the boy did not know how to run the 2nd leg – makes you wonder what they were trained to do in practice, doesn’t it? Didn’t they ever run this race back home in Nigeria with him on the 2nd leg? Simply shocking that such inexperience wasn’t caught and fixed before getting all the way to the WORLD STAGE! lol…

What made this mistake even sadder was that they ended up missing out on qualification for the final, after finishing third in the race in 3:09.37, and missing out on a fastest losers’ spot by just 0.15 seconds!

UPDATE: This is what we hear happened just before the race. At the very last minute the leg 1 and 2 runners were swapped and the following conversation ensued: “But coach, I have never run 2nd leg before”… “IT’S OKAY, JUST GO AND RUN!” 

Amidst the ongoing controversy surrounding the American Athletes recently recruited to Team Nigeria, we analyse the chances of Nigeria’s current 110m  Hurdles Champion, 28-year-old Tyron Akins, formerly of Team USA, in the 110m Hurdles at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday, as well as the chances of runner-up at the Nigerian trials, 25-year-old Alex Al-Ameen, the former British athlete whose father is Nigerian.

On Sunday we asked the question of whether the recently recruited Americans had improved Nigeria’s 100m sprinting pool and whether they could help Team Nigeria to win Commonwealth Medals, and today we’re asking the same question for the 110m hurdles. At MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, we have EXCLUSIVELY put together the 2014 Commonwealth Athlete rankings in the 110m Hurdles to analyse Nigeria’s medal chances in the event!

Essentially, Akins and Al-Ameen are evenly matched at the moment based on their Season’s Bests, but Akins came out on top at the Nigerian Trials when it mattered, winning in 13.66s, with Al-Ameen second in 13.75s and three-time National Sports Festival Champion, Martin Ogieriakhi, third in 13.93s. While Al-Ameen and Akins have certainly given Nigeria an upgrade in terms of the men’s sprint hurdles pool, they are only ranked 13th and 14th amongst Commonwealth  athletes this year, as such it looks like they would have to shave two or three tenths of their best times this season to be in medal contention at these Games.

Akins could be capable of that, if he rediscovers his best form – he has a PB of 13.25s from 2008, and ran 13.30s in three consecutive seasons from 2010 to 2012. Al-Ameen’s best this season is also his lifetime best, and at 25, he still has a number of years to improve in the 110m hurdles, so it remains to be seen if this Games has come too soon for him to make an appreciable impact. The 110m hurdles kick off tomorrow (Tuesday) with 3 stacked Semi-Finals, with one of the three Nigerian hurdlers in each one – given the better ranked athletes that each race is filled with, our hope is that at least one of them can make the Final on Tuesday evening!

Men’s 110m Hurdles Semi-Finals on Tues July 29th

10.55am: Heat 1 – Alex Al-Ameen (NGR No. 1, C’wealth No. 13) vs

Andrew Riley (JAM No. 2, C’wealth No. 2) &

Shane Brathwaite (BAR No. 1, C’wealth No. 5)

11.01 am: Heat 2 – Tyron Akins (NGR No. 2, C’wealth No. 14) vs

Hansle Parchment (JAM No. 1, C’wealth No. 1),

Greggmar Swift (BAR No. 2, C’wealth No. 6) &

Lawrence Clarke (ENG No. 2, C’wealth No. 7)

11.07am: Heat 3 – Martin Ogieriakhi (NGR No. 3, C’wealth No. 19) vs 

Wayne Davis II (TTO No. 1, C’wealth No. 3),

William Sharman (ENG No. 1, C’wealth No. 4) &

Ryan Brathwaite (BAR No. 3, C’wealth No. 10)

MoC PREDICTION: Based on how stacked each Semi-Final is, Akins and Al-Ameen might be racing each other for a fastest losers’ spot in the final – at least one of them could scrape through, but anything can happen in the hurdles, so a great result would be to have both of them reach the final! It would be a huge surprise if either of them were to claim a medal in the Final on Tuesday night. Once again, it’s the hurdles and anything can happen, so we can only hope!

Nigeria won a Bronze medal in the men’s team table tennis this morning, by defeating India 3 matches to 1, with wins in the singles matches from Quadri Aruna and  Ojo Onaolapo (3 games to 1 each) and a win in the doubles by Segun Toriola and Ojo Onaolapo (3 games to 2)!

But it was this AWESOME 41-shot defensive rally by Toriola, the only Nigerian in history to participate in 6 Olympic Games, in the semi-final loss to Singapore yesterday that has been doing the rounds on YouTube!

It had the British commentators (viewable here in UK only) calling it the Rally of the Tournament and of the Year! We’ve never seen anything like it – have you? 

Eight out of the nine athletes representing Nigeria on the first day of Athletics at the Commonwealth Games secured their places in the semi-finals of their respective events on Sunday. In Heat 1 of the women’s 100m, Gloria Asumnu finished second in 11.43s and qualified for the semis behind Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown who led with 11.29s, while Blessing Okagbare dominated Heat 5 with a time of 11.20s and was followed by England’s Asha Philip (11.47s). Home-based athlete Justina Sule was the only casualty on Day One as she finished a distant sixth in Heat 4 with in a time of just 12.00s, more than half a second down from her PB of 11.49s, which she set in Calabar in June.

Asumnu will once again race against Campbell-Brown in the semis on Monday in Heat 2, and will have a good chance of reaching the 100m final if she gets close to her Season’s best of 11.15s. Meanwhile, 100m African record holder, Okagbare will go head to head against Jamaica’s Kerron Stewart in Heat 3. Okagbare looked supremely comfortable in her Heat and is strongly favoured to scale the semi-final and contest for a medal in final, also taking place on Monday!

In the men’s category, Mark Jelks started on a winning note in his debut for Nigeria as he won Heat 3 in 10.28s and qualified for the semis alongside Warren Fraser from the Bahamas (10.31s) and Trinidad & Tobago’s Richard Thompson, the Commonwealth No. 1.this year whom was surprisingly beaten into 3rd with 10.33s. England’s Adam Gemili was the fastest athlete in Round 1, winning Heat 6 in 10.15s, and was followed by runner-up in the National Trials, Monzavous Edwards, also making his first appearance for Nigeria, having recently obtained the green passport. The 33-year old qualified for the semis in a time of 10.40s. Former national champion, Ogho-Oghene Egwero was not left out as he posted 10.38s to move on to the next round along with South Africa’s Akani Simbine who topped Heat 8 with a time of 10.32s.

In the semi-finals, Jelks and Edwards swap their opponents from the 1st Round – Jelks, Nigeria’s current 100m champion, will have his work cut out for him as he takes on Adam Gemili in the semis on Monday, while Edwards will need to make a remarkable improvement if he is to get past Richard Thompson who has an SB of 9.82s. Egwero will go against Jamaica’s Nickel Ashmeade and another South African, Simon Magakwe, in the semi-finals. Magakwe is the fastest African in the 100m this year with an SB of 9.98s while Egwero has posted a time of 10.18s.

In the women’s 400m, the trio of Regina George, Folashade Abugan and Omolara Omotosho all qualified from the heats to the next round of the competition. Coincidentally, all three athletes finished second in their respective heats. George who competed in Heat 1 returned a time of 53.92s, while Omotosho posted a faster time of 53.02s behind Jamaica’s Stephenie McPherson who led with 52.25s in Heat 4. National champion Abugan trailed behind reigning Commonwealth champion, Amantle Montsho in 52.54s in Heat 5. Montsho looks ready to defend her title as she ran posted the fastest time in the heats, 51.88s.

Abugan faces stiff competition in Monday’s semi-finals, as she will be contending with Christine Day of Jamaica who has run the second fastest time in the Commonwealth this year (50.16s), while compatriot, Omotosho will compete against McPherson who has posted an SB of 50.40s. Two-time national champion Regina George finds herself in a STACKED semi-final that includes TWO of the current  heavyweights in her event, Botswana’s Montsho and Jamaica’s Novlene Williams-Mills, who is ranked No 1 in the Commonwealth this year with 50.05s.

Regina will likely have to do something special (or at least run a fast time to qualify as a fastest loser) to justify her inclusion in the individual 400m in place of namesake (no relation) Patience Okon George who finished above her at the Nigerian Trials in June – watch this space!