2. STEPHEN MOZIA
Although it’s not yet the end of the 2016 Athletics season, one can already term this year the ‘record breaking year’ for Nigerian Shot Put Record holder (Indoor and Outdoor), Stephen Mozia.
Not only has he been in record breaking form in his first professional season both indoors and outdoors, he also has some impressive medal collections to his name.
Starting with the African Championships in Durban, Mozia won the country’s first medal on Day 1 of the competition, throwing a distance of 19.84m to finish 3rd in the Shot Put.
24 hours later, he secured his second Bronze medal, this time in the Discus event by throwing a distance of 59.16m, to finish behind South Africa’s duo of Victor Hogan (61.68m) and Rusell Tuck (61.44m). However there’s a likelihood of Mozia being upgraded to the Silver medal position after Hogan tested positive for Methylhexaneamine at the South African Championships in April.
Putting aside the disappointment of not winning a GOLD medal in Durban, the 23 year old bounced back to winning ways in grand style, setting a new National Record (NR) and Meeting Record (MR) of 20.82m, at the Andújar Athletics Meet in Andùjar Jaen, Spain on July 16.
His winning mark was ranked 18th in the world then, and would be the second time this season that he’ll be erasing his own outdoor record, the first being at the Kentucky Relays back in May where he threw a distance of 20.73m to win the event.
Not done with his record breaking form, the Cornell University graduate, just four days after his Meet in Spain, again erased his mark to set a superior lifetime best of 21.76m at the Ustinad Labem in the Czech Republic.
This mark is currently ranked 3rd in the world going to the Olympics, ranks No.2 on the all-time list in African history, and 4th all-time in Czech history.
Mozia’s achievement in the past two months speaks volumes, and puts him as a major medal contender going to Rio. If he succeeds in his quest for a medal, he will become not only Nigeria’s first medallist in this event at any global competition, but also the first male medallist in any throwing event as well.
