Making of Champions

Team Nigeria athletes put up a commendable outing during the 2014 Athletics season. Some athletes stood out based on their individual performances, personal records and medals won in their various events. Here’s a countdown of the TOP 12 athletics performers whom we think stood out exceptionally well for the Green-White-Green of Nigeria:

12. CHINWE OKORO:

It was a close call between Okoro and fellow discus thrower and shot putter, Stephen Mozia on who to take this position, but Okoro’s outstanding performance to win GOLD and defend her African title from 2012 by throwing a Personal Best (PB) and Championship Record (CR) of 59.79m in the discus throw stood her out – she had gone into the championships with a Season’s Best (SB) of 57.83m and  PB of 58.25m. She also won the silver medal in the shot put with an SB of 16.40m, while Mozia got bronze in the men’s discus (57.11m) and 4^th place in the shot put!

 11. AMAKA OGOEGBUNAM:

After an injury plagued 2013, Ogoegbunam came back by winning the GOLD medal in the 400m hurdles at the Nigerian Championships in 56.77s. At the Commonwealth Games, she qualified for the final where she would have run a PB but was disqualified alongside South Africa’s Theron Nel. She made up for this disappointment by winning the silver medal in a PB of 55.46s at the African Championships. Her PB is ranked 23rd in the world this year.

 10. TYRON AKINS:

He came into national recognition at the Nigerian Trials after winning the 110m hurdles in 13.66s as one of several newly recruited Americans to Team Nigeria. He inspired a 1-2-3 finish for Nigeria at the African Championships where he won GOLD in 13.57s ahead of Alex Al-Ameen and Martins Oghieriakhi, which turned out to be his first silverware for his adopted country. He is also the first Nigerian to win the event since national record holder, Williams Erese’s triumph in 1996.

He finally capped his season with an SB of 13.48s to finish 5th at the Continental Cup. Akins gets on the list because of his steady progression of his time for the country throughout the season – can he get back to his PB of 13.25s set in 2008 as a US athlete? Only time will tell – we wish him all the best repping Team Nigeria.

 9.  WOMEN’S 4X100M RELAY TEAM:

The women’s sprint relay team opened their 2014 campaign by finishing 4th at the inaugural IAAF World Relays in the Bahamas with an SB of 42.67s, coming within a hundredth of a second of the Bronze!, That team included Team Nigeria stalwarts Blessing Okagbare and Gloria Asunmu, and a couple of first-timers, Francesca Okwara & Dominique Duncan.

Since then, the returning Lawretta Ozoh replaced Okwara on the team, and led by Okagbare, they raced   to a Commonwealth Games silver medal in 42.92s behind Jamaica, before capping their season with a fifth consecutive title at the African Championships in 43.65s, proving their dominance in Africa in the event.

Special commendation should go to Duncan, who capped off a good first season for Team Nigeria with not just these two relay medals, but a surprise African 200m Bronze medal, ahead of teammate and defending champion Asumnu.

8. AMAECHI MORTON:

Morton is Nigeria’s fastest 400m hurdles athlete in recent years. He is the national champion in the event and his time of 49.65s was enough for a 5th place finish at the Commonwealth Games. Though he lost his African title to South Africa’s Cornel Fredericks, he was able to take the silver medal by breaking the 49s barrier for the first time this season with an SB of 48.92s at the African Championships. Finally, he raced to a 5th place finish in 49.65s at the Continental Cup. His SB is ranked 18th in the world this year.

 7. MARK JELKS:

Just like Akins, Jelks came into national prominence when he emerged the surprise winner of the men’s 100m event in a time of 10.23s, beating tournament favourite, Ogho-Oghene Egwero to the title in Calabar – he has perhaps been the most impressive of the newly recruited American athletes. Tipped as a potential medal winner at the Commonwealth Games, he finished 5th in a much improved time of 10.13s.

At the African Championships, he had the fastest time in the semis in 10.16s before eventually losing out on the GOLD medal to surprise winner, Cote d’Ivoire’s Hua Wilfried Koffi, despite running an SB of 10.07s (Koffi won with 10.05s). He Jelks also anchored the men’s 4x100m relay team to a GOLD medal finish at the same Championships in 38.80s.

At the Continental Cup, Jelks narrowly missed out on a podium place as he finished 4th in the 100m in 10.12s, before anchoring Team Africa to a 3rd place finish in men’s 4x100m relay. His SB is ranked 35th in the world this year. Although he didn’t win any individual medal at global championships,  he’s been amongst the top five finishers in all his individual races this year and has helped increase Nigeria’s rank in the 100m internationally this year.

Can he become the first Nigerian to run sub-10 seconds since Fasuba ran 9.85s in 2006? He will likely need to get back to his PB (9.99s in 2007) or beyond to make either the World Championship or Olympic final in the next 2 years!

Watch out in the coming days for Part II of Nigeria’s Top 12 Athletics Performers for 2014, where we will count down from No. 6 to No. 1 – Can you guess which athletes they are and the correct order? Look out for our game to predict the correct rankings on our social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for a chance to win AIRTIME!

Tags: Nigeria, Team Nigeria

Hey, would you like a passport in 24 hours to compete for Nigeria? Apparently we’re giving them out to anyone who’ll accept the offer…

The African Championships rounded up on Thursday night, and the big surprise for Nigeria fans during the week-long competition was the sudden appearance of new girl Lindsay Weyinme in Green-White-Green of Team Naija. We caught up with her after the 100m Hurdles final where she finished 4th, and this is what she had to say about how she was recruited to Team Nigeria (captured on camera by AthleticsAfrica):

Following the National Trials in Calabar, where we extensively covered the appearance of the newly recruited Americans to Team Nigeria, we asked the most pertinent question that arose – whether they should even have received Green Passport in the first place, given that Nigeria citizenship law clearly states that one must have at least ONE Nigerian parent to naturalise, if you were not born in Nigeria. Never in the history of Nigeria has any foreigner EVER received the passport because their great-grandparent or great-great grandparent was Nigerian, as some of them have claimed is their link to Nigeria.

All of this makes Weyinme’s claim as to how she got the Nigerian Passport even more startling. Is there any country in the whole world where you can become a citizen because your UNCLE MARRIED someone from that country? Not you, but your uncle? It’s such brazen disregard for Nigerian Law that one can only assume this young lady and her ‘Naijamerican’ colleagues have been rather misinformed and ill-advised in this whole situation.

Let’s not even get into the fact that she did not even attend the Nigerian Trials so her selection on the team is a big surprise, to say the least. This is the same situation with Robert Simmons, who also did not attend the trials, and has done little to justify his inclusion on the team, after not finishing his 400m race at the Commonwealth Games, and false starting earlier this week at these African Championships. The integrity of our whole selection process is at stake here.

It did not take long for more news on Wenyime’s background to emerge in online fan forums in Nigeria. It turns out that her real name is Lindsay Lindley, and it is likely that she was given the name Weyinme during the process of naturalising. Interestingly, the other Americans recruited to Team Nigeria have been given Delta middle names, such as Mark ‘Amuju’ Jelks, Monzavous ‘Jolomi’ Edwards, Tyron ‘Toritseju’ Akins, and so on.

They are all set to represent Delta State at the upcoming National Sports Festival, which just happens to be the first National Sports Festival that is open to foreign-based Nigerians, a classification which they now fall under. Which begs the question – is their recruitment really about making Team Nigeria better, or is it about Delta State winning the National Sports Festival? What becomes of them after the Festival? Only time will tell.

One thing is certain – it is very IMPORTANT that Nigerians do NOT direct any ill-feelings towards these athletes, who are merely embracing an opportunity that has been accorded them to advance their careers as Nigerians. What’s done is done, so they should be supported for whatever time they have left as Team Nigeria athletes (the majority of them are over 30), BUT as a people we need to make sure that we protect the integrity of the Nigerian passport, and what it means to represent this great nation – our immigration services has clearly dropped the ball here.

What’s next if we don’t close the loop on this? Someone will say their friend’s sister’s aunty-in-law is Nigerian and that’s how they got the passport? Essentially, almost anybody in the world can get a Nigerian passport in 24 hours to compete for us. You would think that this MIGHT be acceptable if we were talking about world-class, exceptional talents, but so far they have not improved Team Nigeria – at the Commonwealth Games only one of the recruits got a RELAY medal, while at these African Championships only one of them got an individual GOLD, which we still would have won anyway if they were not there, as we swept all the medals in that event. We even lost our Continental Crown to South Africa, winning only 8 gold medals this time around, as opposed to 10 in Porto Novo 2 years ago!

When all is said and done, this is not even about the recruits, and we want to re-iterate that we harbour no ill-feelings towards them, and we will celebrate whatever medals they can win for Team Nigeria at any level. What this is really about is how we see ourselves as a nation and a people. We need now to look deeply within, at our system, to make sure that born and bred Nigerians get the SAME opportunities, SAME privileges, and SAME funding as the American Recruits, because if that were to happen, Nigeria WILL surpass Jamaica & USA as the dominant force in World Athletics. It would only be a matter of time. Watch this space.

Tags: Nigeria, Team Nigeria

Tuesday was a busy evening for Athletics at the African Championships in Marrakech, as Team Nigeria went from winning 1 GOLD on Monday night (Blessing Okagbare in the 100 metres), to winning a whooping FIVE in one evening! This takes Nigeria straight to the top of the medal standings after 3 days, and the nation looks well on course to come close to equalling the 10 GOLD medal haul from the last championships in Benin in 2012!

MEDALS STANDINGS AFTER DAY 3
1. Nigeria 6 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze
2. South Africa 5 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze
3. Kenya 2 gold, 1 silver, 5 bronze
4. Botswana 2 gold,
5. Ethiopia 1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze

Indeed, it was medals galore on Tuesday, as it wasn’t just the GOLD that Nigeria won on the night – Okoro and Okwelogu made it a 1-2 in the Discus, Brume and Amadi made it a 1-2 in the Long Jump, while Abugan and Okon George finished 1^st & 3^rd in the 400 metres! Winning two GOLD medals in the men and women’s 4x100m relays was then simply the icing on the cake for Team Nigeria as the country overtook rivals South Africa, to get to the top of the medals table.

Reigning 100m African champion, Blessing Okagbare anchored the women’s team, comprising of Gloria Asumnu, Dominique Duncan and Lawreta Ozoh to gold in 43.56s, ahead of Cote d’Ivoire (43.99s), who didn’t have their star athlete, Murielle Ahouré in action, and Ghana followed in third with 44.06s. This follows Nigeria’s Silver winning effort at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow where the team finished behind Jamaica who won the event with 41.83s, while Nigeria posted 42.93s.

The men’s 4x100m team, which comprised of Ogho-Oghene Egwero, Monzavous Edward, Obinna Metu and Mark Jelks, won their first medal of the season as they coasted to gold in 38.80s, thereby bringing an end to South Africa’s domination in the event. The South Africans, who were favourites for the title pulled out, thereby paving the way for Nigeria to reclaim its lost glory in the event. The medal serves as a consolation no doubt, after their seventh place finish in Glasgow. 

Ghana placed second in 39.28s, with Algeria coming third with a National Record (NR) of 39.89s, which elicited wide jubilation from the North Africans. Nigeria holds the AR in the 4x100m (37.94s) while their South African counterparts are owners of the CR (38.75).

In the men’s 400m hurdles, defending champion, Amaechi Morton lost his crown to South Africa’s Cornel Fredericks who is also the new Commonwealth Champion. However, he was consoled by the silver medal (48.92s), having been assured of a place at the forthcoming IAAF Continental Cup, while fellow Nigerian Miles Ukaoma finished in sixth with 50.40s.

Noah Akwu, Nigeria’s last man standing in the 400m, placed seventh in the final that was won by African record holder, Isaac Makwala of Botswana with a CR of 44.23s. Akwu had posted a Season’s Best (SB) of 45.86s in the semis but was unable to replicate the same form in the final as he finished with 46.40s.

The heats of the men’s 110 hurdles was dominated by Nigeria as Alex Al-Ameen won Heat 1 in 13.89s while compatriots Tyron Akins and Martins Ogierakhi finished in the top two spots in Heat 2 with 13.77s and 13.87s respectively. Akins had the fastest time in the final rankings, with Ogierakhi and Al-Ameen following closely. Nigeria can pull off a 1-2-3 in today’s final, barring any injury concerns, but have to watch out for Algeria’s duo of Othman Hadj Lazib and Lyes Mokddel who complete the Africa Top 5 list.

Tags: Nigeria, Team Nigeria

With the World Cup now over, and Team Nigeria getting ready to go in the Commonwealth Games starting this week, Making of Champions Ltd brings you the EXCLUSIVE Pre-Commonwealth Games screening of our new Athletics Documentary Film, MAKING OF CHAMPIONS: “The History”! 

See below for the synopsis and teaser for the film! Let’s get behind Team Nigeria and Make Champions! Admission is FREE, however be sure to RSVP to management@makingofchamps.com to confirm your attendance! We hope to see you there on Sunday!

SYNOPSIS

In late 2012, independent filmmaker Bambo Akani started the journey of making the feature-length documentary, Making of Champions: “The History” after seeing a country as populous as Nigeria, blessed with so many people of natural athletic ability, return from the London 2012 Olympics with a sum total of ZERO medals – the first time Nigeria had failed to medal at the Olympics since Seoul ’88. In truth, the decline has been steady since the Sydney 2000 Olympics – we just did not realise it.

Making of Champions: “The History” is a 75-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:

Making of Champions: “The History” traverses the globe to meet Nigeria’s former Olympic heroes and tell the stories of how they won their Olympic medals – Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya and Enefiok Udo-Obong, the only double Olympic medallists in Nigeria’s history, and Innocent Egbunike who was Nigeria’s head coach at the London 2012 Olympics. We meet former Nigerian medallists Francis Obikwelu and Glory Alozie in Portugal and Spain respectively, to find out why they switched from Nigeria to represent their adopted countries and finally, we meet all of Jamaica’s star athletes, such as Yohan Blake and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, to find out why the Jamaicans are so fast!

The ultimate goal for the film is to awaken Nigerians to the vast potential we have in Track and Field, rekindle the national 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 film answers all these questions and more, and is a call to arms for Nigerians everywhere to ensure that the legacy of heroes past is not lost forever in a sport in which Nigeria has limitless potential!

Tags: Nigeria, Team Nigeria

MAURICE GREENE, Former World Record Holder, Olympic GOLD Medallist and 3-time World Champion in the 100 metres, speaks EXCLUSIVELY to MAKING OF CHAMPIONS about his rivalries with Nigerian athletes during his illustrious career, and his recent appointment as Team Nigeria’s Relay Coordinator!

You were the 100m World Record Holder with a time of 9.79s between 1999 and 2005. What were some of the greatest rivalries you had against Nigerian Athletes in that time?

At that time, (Francis) Obikwelu. Though I don’t know if he had switched countries yet, but he was probably my biggest rival. 

He was still representing Nigeria at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, when you won the 200 metre title and he was third. Can you tell us a little about that?

Well, it was a great rivalry. He kind of startled me in the semi-final because he ran that race so easily. He ran 19.84 seconds, and I was like ‘uh-oh’, I am really going to have to do something in the final, so I kind of changed up my game plan a little bit. I knew I had to change up and put more pressure on him in the race.

You won the final with a time of 19.90s, so if he had run that fast in the final, you would have lost it?

Well yeah that’s true, but each race is different. It all depends on who’s in the race and what happens during the race, that’s all.

If we recall correctly, Obikwelu pipped you to the Silver medal in the 100 metres at the Athens 2004 Olympics in a time of 9.86s – by then he was running for Portugal – while you took the Bronze in 9.87s?

Yeah – that was my fault though, because in the semi-final I slowed down too much at the end and he leaned and took second, so that pushed me to an outside lane for the final. I like being in the middle of the track, because when somebody moves I can move to go faster. So that messed me up – it put me in lane 7, so I only had Obadele Thompson from Barbados in Lane 8, and Asafa Powell in Lane 6, but everything happened in lanes 3, 4 and 5. So that messed me up, but you know I say it’s my fault, so it happens. You go through race strategies and race plans and everything else, so you’ve got to live with what happens. 

Another famous race for Nigeria at that Olympics was the 4×100 metre relay, and we distinctly remember Deji Aliu receiving the baton on the anchor leg for Nigeria at the same time you did for Team USA, and you eventually just missed out on the GOLD to Team GB by one hundredths of a second, with Nigeria taking the Bronze?

Yeah it was tough, because at those Olympics I lost 2 GOLD medals by three hundredths of a second – miserable day. I mean, you can’t even blink that fast. But you know what? It happens…

Let’s talk about your current appointment at the Relay Coordinator for Team Nigeria. What are your hopes and expectations for the role? What do you think you can bring to Nigerian Athletics? 

I don’t hope anything. Nigeria has a lot of great athletes here, and we just have to bring out that talent. They brought me in to mentor a lot of them and just help put everything together so that they can start producing the medals like they should. They haven’t been doing it in the past few years, and things need to change, so it’s my job to come in and try to change things, and try to make sure that the world sees the exact talent that Nigeria really has. So that’s what I plan on doing.

Do you have any of the athletes under your direct tutelage as their coach?

Yeah, I have a couple of them. I don’t work with them every day, but we have training camps, and I speak to a lot of them through email and on the phone, so it’s all of the above.

Let’s do a quick recap of the World Relays in the Bahamas – the girls had a great performance in the 4x400m relay, with the third fastest time ever by a Nigerian quartet in the event. What can you say about our performance at the World Relays?

Yeah, I think that was just a start of what we are beginning. It’s going to get better from there. That is just the start of it. At the World Relays, I had just been with the team for a couple of months, and I think the women did a very good job there. But I expect more out of them, and they know that I expect more from them. I get them to believe that they should expect more also, so good things – no, great things – are yet to come! 

Tune in tomorrow for the conclusion of this exclusive interview with Maurice Greene, during his first ever trip to Nigeria for the National Trials in Calabar, where he weighs in on the recent trend of American athletes switching allegiances to Nigeria! 

Maurice Greene, Team Nigeria’s Relay Coordinator, at the UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar, during the 2014 Nigerian Athletics Championships

Tags: Nigeria, Team Nigeria