The 1st leg of the 2014 International Diamond League Circuit was completed in Doha on Friday (May 9th), and the race of focus for Nigerian fans was undoubtedly the women’s 100m, where the fast finishing Blessing Okagbare posted 11.18s but was ultimately held off by Jamaica’s ‘Pocket Rocket’, Double Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who clinched the win in 11.13s:
Fraser-Pryce thus stretched her head-to-head in the 100m with Okagbare to 13-3, but the Nigerian Double World Championship Medallist keeps getting closer and it will be interesting to see if she will be able to beat Fraser-Pryce this season, especially when it matters the most at the Commonwealth Games, where both athletes are expected to attempt the 100m/200m double! One thing is for certain, Blessing will need a more explosive start so that she doesn’t have too much ground to make up in the final stages of their match-ups.
While Okagbare was the only athlete representing Nigeria in Doha, there were a couple of former Nigerian Athletes representing their adopted nations very well. The biggest surprise of the night was undoubtedly in the 400m Hurdles, where the virtually unknown Kemi Adekoya, in her first race representing Bahrain, won convincingly ahead of a world class field in 54.59s, in the process setting a new National Record and a world leading time this season! That she did this from Lane 1 should serve as an ominous sign for her rivals in the 400m hurdles this season. It is a travesty the Team Nigeria cannot get the best out of our amazingly talented athletes, and that they have to seek greener pastures elsewhere to start fulfilling their great potential. What are we doing wrong? Here is what Adekoya had to say after her win (in her unmistakably Nigerian accent):
Finally, Nickel Ashmeade and Warren Weir made it a Jamaican 1-2 in the men’s 200 metres, but the third place finisher was Qatari athlete Femi Ogunode, who finished in a very respectable 20.38s. You guessed it – Ogunode is yet another Nigerian flying the flag for Qatar, whom he has competed for since 2010. He followed the footsteps of Asian 100m Record Holder Samuel Francis, who made the same switch in 2007 and promptly became the fastest man ever in Asia with the only sub-10 run (9.99s) in their history! Ogunode has already had a fantastic indoor season this year, where he won Bronze in the 60 metres at the the World Indoor Championships in March in a time of 6.52s. Interestingly, Femi’s younger brother, Tosin Ogunode, made his debut for Qatar this year, and promptly became the Asian 60m Record Holder with a time of 6.50s!
When will Nigeria start getting the best of out of our athletes and keep them competing for the Green-White-Green of the nation? Post/tweet with the hashtag #FormerNigerianAthletes to join in the discussion on the Making of Champions Facebook & Twitter pages!
