Duro Ikhazuagbe
Team Nigeria’s athletes and officials returned to Abuja on Saturday afternoon from Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Those based abroad had earlier left for their different destinations almost the same way they arrived in the Japanese city. The two silver and bronze medals won by Blessing Oborududu and Ese Brume in Wrestling and Long Jump respectively matched Nigeria’s best outing at the Games in the last 20 years. Expectedly, barbs have been flying in the air on why Team Nigerian athletes mainly went to complete the numbers in Tokyo instead of winning cherished silverwares.
Interestingly, not many others shared the optimism expressed by sports authorities in the country ahead of our participation at the Games in Tokyo. These critics based their beliefs on well-known facts of how we manage the sector in ‘fire brigade’ manners in the country. Now, they have been justified in saying Nigerians should not have expected any tangible achievements from the Games delayed for one year by the coronavirus pandemic.
As it is often the case here, sports officials have started giving the usual excuses for why we failed to go beyond the two medals. We are been told that “Nigeria went to the Games with fresh, young talents that are going to be ‘world beaters’ at the next edition in Paris in three years time.” We have been hearing these excuses for more than three decades! We heard them when we returned from Athens 2004 with two bronze medals. The story was the same in Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and now Tokyo 2020. Only Atlanta in 1996 appears the only exception to the rule since we started as an independent nation to feature at the Games. Incidentally, Tokyo in 1964 was where Najee’s Maiyegun gave Nigeria her first Olympic medal, a bronze in boxing. Of course, we made our entry much earlier under the Union Jack flag at the Helsinki Games in 1952. It appears nothing has really changed between then and now except for the Atlanta Games.
A look at our performance in Tokyo revealed the same trend that has bedeviled our sports. Near misses caused by ill preparations and incompetence on the part of the handlers of the various sports. Take track & field for instance, how on earth did our officials in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and those in the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports forget that 10 track athletes didn’t do the mandatory three out-of-competition tests to qualify them to take part in the Games? Did these officials forget to sign for their estacodes and other allowances going to Tokyo 2020? Of course, Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) officials who are not like Nigerian officials in dereliction of their duties promptly suspended these 10 unfortunate athletes from Tokyo 2020.
The most embarrassing part was that the Nigerian athletes were half of the 20 suspended from seven countries. The 10 athletes violated Rule 15 of the anti-doping regulations which mandated three out-of-competitions tests within 10 months of a major track & field competition. Since last year, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) beamed it’s searchlight on Nigeria due to several things that we have taken for granted. It therefore was no surprise to track & field aficionados when Nigeria got listed in Category ‘A’ of countries with highest risks of doping. It was this carelessness that led to the 10 athletes missing the mandatory blood and urine tests three weeks apart before arriving in Tokyo.
That suspension of these 10 athletes who were mostly first timers at the Games, cast a pall on the track & field team. 10 out of 23 athletes that qualified for the Olympics effectively ensured that our women’s 4x100m relay team got depleted and was in danger. The exclusion of Favour Ofili and Grace Chukwuma who were supposed to run in that 400m relay created a void that was very difficult to fill. It therefore was not a surprise that the team failed to make it to the semis when chips were down.
As if the scandal of the ‘Suspended 10’ was not bad enough, Nigeria was again in the news for the wrong reason. Blessing Okagbare that was Nigeria’s biggest medals prospect in the 100m and 200m got suspended provisionally from the Games after qualifying for the semi final of the women’s 100m.
AIU insisted the sample collected from the double Commonwealth Games gold medalist in an out-of-competition tests in early July contained banned substances. Okagbare tested positive for Human Growth Hormone (HGH). That news threw the Nigerian camp in Tokyo into shock and a pall of uncertainty. Ese Brume admitted it was divine intervention that restored their faith to them to continue to compete. Okagbare is the poster girl of Nigeria’s track & field since making her debut at Beijing and winning a bronze in the long jump. That bronze was elevated to silver following the disqualification of the Russian jumper that won it initially. With Okagbare out, hopes of getting medals in the country’s track and field shifted to Divine Oduduru, Tobiloba Amusan and Ese Brume. Oduduru got disqualified in the 100m heat for a false start. The former American NCAA sprint champion also failed to progress beyond the semis in the 200m
As for Amusan, the petit sprint hurdler was unfortunate to be involved in the most difficult women’s 100m hurdles event since Barcelona ‘92! On that field for the final were Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, USA’s Kendra Harrison, Jamaica’s Megan Tapper, Nadine Visser (Holland), Devynne Charlton (Bahamas) USA’s Gabriele Cunningham and Britany Anderson of Jamaica. Camacho-Quinn won the race in 12.37secs followed by Harrison (12.52) and Tapper picking the bronze in 12.55. Amusan’s 12.60 could only place her fourth and out of the podium. A medal of any colour would have been an addition to the bronze she won at the World Championships in Doha in 2019! The last time Nigeria won a 100m hurdles medal was at Sydney 2000 when Glory Alozie was narrowly beaten to the gold by Kazakhstan’s Olga Shishigina with 12.65secs. Amusan’s time is even better than what gave Shishigina the gold Down Under. Yet the time was only good enough for the fourth spot at this edition.
To followers of Nigerian’s track & field, Ese Brume was the country’s biggest medal prospect at Tokyo 2020. Her progression and consistency in the women’s long jump have remained phenomenal. Her bronze medal with 6.97m jump was the first in track and field since Okagbare won the same bronze (elevated to silver) at her debut in Beijing in 2008.
Since taking over the jump business from her fellow Delta sister Okagbare, Brume has remained the shinning light for the country. Just in 2019, Brume won a World Championships bronze medal at the edition in Doha, Qatar. Earlier, she won the gold at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow then top it up with an African record of 7.17m at the Chula Vista Field Festival in California, USA on June 12, 2021. That jump effectively ended Chioma Ajunwa reign as African record hold at 7.12m which gave her the gold at Atlanta ‘96. Brume’s very first jump of 6.97m in Tokyo earned her the bronze behind Germany’s Malaika Mihambo and USA’s Brittney Reese who won the gold and silver respectively.
In men shot put, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi may not have won a medal, in the it was also the first time Nigeria had a representative in the final of the event at the Olympic. The men’s shot put final also had one of the toughest fields in the history of the Olympics at the Tokyo Games. Defending champion USA’s Ryan Crouser retained his title with new a Olympic record three times in the final as he grabbed gold with a mark of 23.30m. He set the previous record of 22.52m at the Rio Games five years ago when he won the title. Crouser broke the world record in June with a 23.37m mark. His compatriot, Joe Kovacs, took silver and Tomas Walsh of New Zealand claimed bronze with a season’s best mark of 22.47. The final results mirrored the 2016 final. It therefore was a field too strong for Enekwechi to dream of any medal.
Blessing Oborududu’s feat on the mat that gave her a silver was the reward of a 10-year plan. Training under Daniel Igali who won gold for Canada at Sydney 2000, no one expected anything less that a bronze from her. Igali has shown that medals are not won based on prayers and fasting. They are the rewards of a carefully planned programme. Coming from a sane environment like Canada where sports is treated as business and given the right funding and environment to thrive, Igali went through thick and thin to have something semblance of what he enjoyed in the North American nation. Today, Oborududu has joined the elite class of Nigerians who have medaled at the highest stage of sport-the Olympic Games.
Sadly enough, Odunayo Adekuoroye on whose shoulders Nigerians had placed the hope of winning a gold failed due to a technical error. Rated as number two in the women’s 57kg freestyle wrestling event, she was expected to win at the worst a bronze medal. But fate played a cruel joke on her. Leading at 8-0 with just two more points left to sail into the next round, Adekuoroye suffered a pin and lost everything in 8-2. In wrestling, a pin is equivalent of a knock out in boxing! These were the high points of Nigeria’s sojourn in Tokyo.
Unfortunately, the likes of Quadri Aruna, Funke Oshonaike, Edem Offiong and Omotayo failed to go beyond the preliminary rounds. Even Edem that reached the second round lost woefully. Other athletes we featured in the taekwondo, Canoeing, gymnastics all failed
D’Tigers and D’Tigress were unfortunate to be paired in groups that didn’t favour them. The men were in the same pairings with defending champions USA that eventually won the gold. Japan and France proved very tough customers given their high ratings. The Nigerian basketball ladies played USA, Japan and France who finished number 1, 2, 3 at the Tokyo 2020. Despite the loss, there is hope if those saddled with running the country’s sports do the right things to lift the game.
Until there are sanctions for those who caused the unfortunate embarrassments in Tokyo and true attempts made to source funds and get the right men (and women) to help us change the narratives, we do not need seers to tell us another poor run lurks at Paris 2024. The scandal of PUMA dumping Nigeria with a possible legal fireworks in the offing, those responsible for this show of shame need to be made to face the music. In a situation where there are no consequences for infractions, we will continue to get this kind of heart aches inflicted on our compatriots.
Winning Olympic gold medal is a ten-year programme. Igali has ,Afe it loud and clear that Oborududu followed a programme of almost a decade before making it to the podium. In a country of over 200million people, we cannot allow a minority set of people to be taking us for a ride. Now is the time to begin preparation if we want to make it to the podium in several events at Paris 2024. Enough of excuses.
FOR THE RECORD
*Dope
Three athletes were suspended during the course of Tokyo 2020 for failing dope tests. They include:
1 Blessing Okagbare -Nigeria
2 Mark Otieno Odhiambo -Kenya
3 Alsadik Mikhou – Bahrain
*First Gold
1 India’s Neeraj Chopra won the country’s first athletics gold in the men’s javelin event
