Nigerians lead other countries’ medals chase
VIVIAN Chukwuemeka, who was dropped from Team Nigeria to the London 2012 Olympic Games for allegedly spiking her system with performance-enhancing drugs, is one of the athletes listed by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for the shot put event at the Games.
Chukwuemeka was suspected to have used banned drugs at the Africa Championship in Port Novo and was subsequently suspended by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) pending the outcome of the test on her B sample by the doping committee. She risks life ban for being a second offender.
There are still doubts about the participation of Nigeria’s Esther Obiekwe in the women’s marathon where, according to checks on the IAAF list, no Nigerian is listed for the event.
No Nigerian official was available for comment on Obiekwe’s status as at press time, but sources close to the lady assured journalists that she would participate in the event.
Nigeria will not be featuring in its traditional 4×100 metres men’s relay race because the team was not registered by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) as it failed to meet the AFN standard, but some other Nigerians would run for other countries in the event.
Canada’s team will feature three Nigerians in its 4×100 metres relay team. The sprinters are Makinde Oluwasegun, Haynes Akeem and Smith Oluseyi, just as Australia has Anthony Alozie in the event, with Dasaolu James representing Great Britain.
In the 110 metres, Nigeria’s entrant is Nurudeen Selim, whose season best time is 13.54 seconds. He would contend with injury-prone Chinese runner, Liu Xiang (SB 12.97sec), Americans Meritt Aries (SB 12.93 sec), Richardson Jason (SB 12.98 sec) and Porter Jeff (SB 13.08 sec).
Ameachi Morton will run in the 400 metres hurdles. He has a season’s best time of 46.79 seconds. Incidentally, Nigeria will not participate in the 4×400 metres relay men’s race, but it registered Stanley Gbagbeke for the long jump event in which his personal best jump is 8.20 metres.
He would face stiff challenges from Russia’s Motgunov Sergay, who has a season’s best of 8.35 seconds and Great Britain’s Rutherford Greg whose SB is 8.35 seconds.
Tosin Oke will fly the country’s flag in the men’s triple jump, where he will face the opposition from Philips Idowu of Great Britain and the Italian duo of Donato Fabrizio and Greco Dariete.
In the women’s class, Nigeria registered four runners for the 100 metres. They are Blessing Okagbare, Gloria Asumnu and Lauretta Ozoh, while Damola Osayomi was registered as a reserve.