Self determination, luck and strong-will rather than adequate preparations has kept Nigeria’s flag flying high at the ongoing Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India.
The athletes had been unable to embark on foreign tours to help sharpen their skills and boost confidence due to the usual complaints of lack of funds. And by day three (Wednesday) of the Games, the country’s hope of finishing as the best African team all but faded when Nigerian boxers were outclassed by their opponents and failed to advance at the Games.
Despite all the dark spots, the athletes did not give up and have gone ahead to churn out commendable performances in Delhi.
Competing in just seven sports out of the possible seventeen, Nigerian athletes no doubt have cause to hold their heads high for their performances at the Games.
Though not currently topping the medals table, the Nigerian contingents have won medals in almost all the sports entered for. These are: Athletics, weightlifting, special sports, table tennis, wrestling amongst others.
While the performances have shown the great potentials inherent in the athletes, many believe that a better preparation and greater motivation for the athletes would have resulted in a higher medal haul.
“We are not where we ought to be definitely. Each day we are losing our grip on those sports that we usually won. As a country we have played lip service to sports development and that is why we are where we are right now,” Solomon Ogba, President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria said before the Nigerian contingent left for Delhi.
Ogba said unless adequate funds are invested in sports and welfare of athletes by the government, the country might not fully harness her potentials.
Women on top
Gold medals from Damola Osayomi, Augustina Nwaokolo, Obioma Okoli are some of the highlights for Nigeria at the Delhi Games. The exploits of the female athletes has again brought to fore the widening gulf between the performance of our male and female sportsmen, which has been more obvious recently.
Olympic medallist, Falilat Ogunkoya, believes it’s time for the men to play catch up.
“That means women have taken over, even before now the women have been doing that. Is it not a woman that won the first gold medal for Nigeria? So, that one is not new. Let the men catch up, there is nothing special, we are just doing our thing. When you said you want to be one of the best in the world, that would affect your mindset and performance and you would do well,” she said.
Only this year, Nigeria’s national U-20 women’s team, the Falconets won a silver medal at the U-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany and at the 2010 Africa Athletics Championships in Kenya, seven out of the eight gold medals won by the Nigerian contingent were won by women.
Even long before the exploits of the Falconets and the Blessing Okagbare inspired contingent to the Nairobi championships, women had been trail blazers. In 1996, Chioma Ajunwa became the first Nigerian to win an Olympic Gold medal when she finished in first position in the Long jump. It was Nigeria’s first gold at the Olympics after 44 years of participating in the games.
In football, Nigeria’s senior women’s national team, the Super Falcons have qualified for every edition of the women’s World Cup since its inception in 2002 and maintained a vice-like grip on the African Women’s Championship, winning every edition from the maiden edition in 1998 until they were toppled in 2008 by Equatorial Guinea.
It’s not been the same for the men – the shambolic performance at the World Cup held in South Africa, where the Super Eagles failed to make it beyond the first round comes to mind. The inability of the country’s male athletes to make it to the podium in recent times is another issue.
For all these to change and for the country to excel at the 2012 London Olympics, Isaac Ikhaobome, an athletics coach based in Lagos said serious preparation must start now.
“The Olympics is a different ball game, you can see many athletes pulling out of the Commonwealth because they feel it’s not too important for them but the Olympics it is the gathering of the best you can get. There is no short cut to glory let them give athletes training grants on time so has to get the best from them,” he said.