Youth and Sports Development Minister, Chief Sunday Dare, is confident Nigeria’s 13-year wait for a track and field medal at the Olympics will end this year at the Tokyo Games.
Nigeria last won a track and field medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 when the women’s 4x100m relay team and Blessing Okagbare (long jump) won silver medals and the Sports Minister is confident the sport will start delivering the medals like it did in 1996 in Atlanta.
Track and Field has accounted for 13 of the 25 medals Team Nigeria have won at the Games.
The sport has also delivered two of the three gold medals won with a first ever individual gold by Chioma Ajunwa in the women’s long jump.
“The performances of our athletes so far this year have given us renewed hopes that Nigerian track and field athletes can better their performance at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta where they won four medals (three individual and one team medal) at the Tokyo Games this summer,” said the Sports Minister who believes his adopt-an-athlete initiative has started yielding the desired results. “The fastest girl in Nigeria today, Grace Nwokocha Nzubechi is one of the athletes on the programme and we can see the progress she has made since she was adopted, running a world-class 11.09 seconds to secure qualification for the Olympics right here in Nigeria.
“Others on the programme are also delivering new personal bests and I am sure one or two more can secure the qualification time or mark for the Games at the ongoing 20th National Sports Festival,” he added.
Dare is also thrilled with the performance of Ruth Usoro who only on Saturday broke the Nigeria triple jump record (14.50m) in the USA. “Ruth is also an athlete we are monitoring. She has proved to be a real talent that can shake the world very soon,” he said.
Dare is pleased with the performance of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria who have provided athletes with three competitions before the Festival and commended efforts of others who have provided competitions on the road for the athletes.
“The girl who won the Ogbomosho 10km road race, Mary Oyinkansola Ajayi has won the women’s 3000m Steeplechase title at the Festival here in Benin while one of the athletes who also competed at the Ogbomosho race, Raimot Abike Jimoh won the 5000m event at the AFN All-Comers and Classics in Akure last month and came in third in the Steeplechase event here at the National Sports Festival,” he added and promised the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development will continue to provide the enabling environment for sports to develop in Nigeria.
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