ONE of the country’s biggest track stars in her days, Linda Eseimokumoh, hissed endlessly, while reacting to the cancellation of the camping programme earlier planned by Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) for Team Nigeria ahead of the 14th IAAF World Championship in Moscow.
The AFN had planned to camp the athletes for a period of two weeks in a country with the same weather condition with Russia, before the commencement of the World Championship, which begins on August 10.
The idea was for them to have their final preparations, particularly the relays, where the nation is hoping to pick medals, in addition to others.
While the athletes were eagerly waiting for the commencement of the camping exercise, the AFN called it off during the week over what an official described as ‘fund constraint’ following the inability of the supervising ministry, the Sports Ministry/National Sports Commission (NSC), to provide the money needed to carry out the exercise.
Since then, there has been a series of blame game from one end to the other. While some officials of the NSC are insisting that the AFN should be blamed for submitting its budget for the championship late, some top members of the athletics’ body are accusing the NSC of insensitivity to the needs of the sporting federations, claiming that the sports ministry was only concerned on how to fund the male football teams, irrespective of the competitions they are featuring in.
A worried Eseimokumoh is of the view that Team Nigeria may have shot itself on the foot even before the commencement of the Moscow championship with this cancellation.
“It is not done that way,” the Bayelsa State-born Eseimokumoh told The Guardian in a telephone chat. “Our athletes need to train together for a period of time so that they can perfect their baton exchange. We all witnessed what happened in Warri during the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) Golden League/Relays, where two of our US-based female stars, Gloria Asumnu and Regina George, failed to exchange their batons properly.
“Apart from the relay teams, I strongly believe that our athletes actually need the camping exercise to do well at the World Championship,” she said.
The US-based Eseimokumoh was a junior athlete, when she was included in the nation’s team to Los Angeles ’84 Olympic Games, though, she did not participate in the main event. She captained Nigeria’s junior team to Accra, Ghana, for the 1984 West African Games, where she won a gold and a silver medal in the 100m and long jump events. She got a scholarship from the late pillar of sports in Africa, Chief Moshood Abiola, on return to Lagos.
As a senior athlete, Eseimokumoh was part of Nigeria’s team to the 1987 All African Games in Kenya, where she picked a silver medal. She also made the World University Games’ team to Yugoslavia that same year and returned home with silver.
In her active days in Nigeria’s athletics, Eseimokumoh teamed up with the likes of Mary Onyali-Omagbemi and Beatrice Utondu, her schoolmates in Texas Southern University in the United States, to win some relay medals in international competitions for Nigeria.
“As at that time, Nigeria had a pool of sprinters to select her relay teams from whenever there were major sporting events. Then, about four or five star athletes were together in one university and it was always easy for them when competing in the relays against their counterparts from other parts of the world during competitions because they would have perfected their baton exchange for so long before hitting the competition venue.
“The situation is different today because we have athletes coming from different training backgrounds to compete in the relays.
“For instance, in this Team Nigeria contingent to Moscow, our relay team is made up of home-based and their foreign counterparts. In this situation, the athletes must train together for a period of time for the country to achieve good result. But all the same, we will continue to pray for their success in Moscow. We just have to bank on luck,” Eseimokumoh stated.
Former Nigeria’s track queen, Tina Iheagwam, could not understand why issues of funding should stop Team Nigeria from training together in a camp for a period of time before the commencement of the World Championship.
Iheagwam was two-time All Africa Games medalist for Nigeria. She also won medals for the country at other championships, including the World Junior Championship in 1986, as well as the 1987 edition of the World University Games.
She lamented the cancellation of the camping programmes earlier planned for Moscow, saying: “I was so disappointed when one of the athletes called me to say that they would go straight to Moscow and that the camping programme was cancelled. How come? How does our government want our athletes to perform in Moscow? Magic?
“Soon we will hear that a large number of government officials travelled to Moscow. Why is Nigeria always different whenever we have big sporting events at hand? If by luck any athlete wins a medal in Moscow, the entire country will claim the glory. No one will remember that is the personal effort of the athlete. They will line up red carpets here and there. It is very unfortunate,” Iheagwam stated.
Team Nigeria named its 20-man contingent for the Moscow 2013 World Championship during the week with the current African women’s 100m record holder, Blessing Okagbare, leading the team.
Technical Director of AFN, Navy Commodore Omatseye Nesiama, said while unveiling the list mid-week that Nigeria would compete in ‘our’ area of specialties like the men and women sprint, the quartermile and the relays.
Conspicuously missing from the 20-man list to the World Championships is Doreen Amata, who made it to the final of the last edition in Daegu, South Korea.
The African women high jump champion has been struggling all through the outdoors season and was unable to make the 1.92m B entry standard for the Moscow 2013. Amata’s season best so far is the 1.91m she jumped in Texas some months ago. She leapt 1.90m to win the Cross River/All Nigeria Open Championship in Calabar, which served as the country’s trials for the Moscow Games last month.
While Okagbare is gunning for medals in the women’s 100m, 200m and long jump, her fellow sprinters, Gloria Asumnu and Stephanie Kalu, were entered for the 100m and the 4x100m relay. Junior athlete, Uko Peace, will complete in the 4x100m relay quartet.
The quarter-milers in the team include Regina George, Omolara Omotosho, Patience Okon and Josephine Ehigie.
Ajoke Odumosu and Ugonna Ndu were also listed for the quartermile barrier event, while Ibukun Mayungbe and Bukola Abogunloko are for the 4x400m relay alone.
Only eight male athletes made Team Nigeria’s squad to Moscow. The list includes Nigeria’s fastest man, Ogho-Oghene Egwero, who is listed to compete in the 100m event, which is almost the exclusive right of Jamaica’s Usain Bolt.
Even if the multi-talented Bolt false-started in Moscow, as he did in Daegu two years ago, Egwero’s chances of making it to the final remains very bleak because of the array of stars in the sprint.
Noah Akwu, who is trying his luck in the longer sprint, the 200m, is listed for the event and the 400m, while Tosin Oke (triple jump) and Momoh Leoman (800m) are the other none quartermilers for the party in Moscow.
Gerald Odeka, Tobi Ogunmola, Isah Salihu and Abiola Onakoya complete Nigeria’s 20-man squad for the championships.
Los Angeles ’84 bronze medalist in the 4x400m, Sunday Uti, experienced quarter-mile trainer, Tony Osheku, national long jump record holder, Yussuf Alli are among the coaches leading the Nigerian team to Moscow.
The Guardian learnt that the Nigerian contingent started jetting out in batches from Lagos yesterday. The last batch, which will include the home-based athletes and some coaches, is expected to jet out tomorrow.
Despite the wide criticism and condemnation that greeted the cancellation of the athletes’ camping for the Moscow Games, the AFN Head of Communication and Media, Olukayode Thomas, said in a statement during the week that the minister was supporting AFN’s preparation for the Moscow 2013 IAAF Championship.
According to Thomas, the NSC is not only aiding the Federation financially, but also offering moral support.
“The NSC under the leadership of Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has been supporting us in every way. The Honourable Minister requested for our plan for the World Championship and we have submitted the plan. We don’t have any problem with the NSC or the Honourable Minister,” Thomas said.
Some athletics faithful are of the view that apart from Okagbare, who is Nigeria’s brightest medals hope in Moscow, the relay teams could also win medals in the championship.
The last time Nigeria made it to the podium at the IAAF World Championship was in 1999 in Spain, where the duo of Gloria Alozie and Francis Obikwelu picked silver and bronze medals in the women’s 100m hurdles and the sprint respectively.
However, the duo were forced to pick the nationalities in Spain and Portugal respectively after discovering that their career could be jeopardized by officials of the sports ministry.