Olympic Silver medallist Glory Alozie joins MoC Track Club as Sprint Hurdles Coach!

Making of Champions (MoC) Track Club has secured the services of its third Olympic medallist coach in the person of Glory Alozie, who will team up with fellow Olympians Deji Aliu and Uchenna Emedolu, who currently coach at the Lagos and Port Harcourt arms of the club respectively.

This was announced at an unveiling ceremony held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos on Thursday, January 18th, 2018.

Alozie is Nigeria’s first and only Olympic and World Championships medallist (male and female) in the hurdles, and will serve as the MoC’s Sprint Hurdles coach at the Lagos Track Club over an initial period of three months.

The Sydney 2000 Silver medallist who is passionate about raising future world beaters for Nigeria, teamed up with MoC in 2015 in their quest to raise future champions for the country in Track and Field.

She was one of the coaches on ground at the Top Sprinter auditions in Ibadan, Enugu, Benin and the Lagos Finals, and also starred alongside Aliu, Emedolu and Francis Obikwelu as one of the Olympic medalist judges on MoC’s Reality TV show, Top Sprinter Genesis.

Alozie enjoyed a spectacular career during her active days and won several medals for Nigeria including Silver at the 1996 World Juniors, two Gold medals at the 1996 and 1998 editions of the African Championships, and Silver medals at both the World Indoor (60m Hurdles) and World (outdoor) Championships in 1999.

Her Personal Best of 12.44s in the 100m Hurdles set in 1998, remains the Nigerian, African and Commonwealth Record in the event. Her best time of 10.90s in the 100m was the Nigerian and African record until it was erased by Blessing Okagbare in 2013. She is also Nigeria’s last individual Olympic medalist on the track.

Alozie got her coaching qualification in Spain in 2013, and has since coached in Spain, Germany and England. She says she feels honoured to be a part of MoC’s coaching crew:

“I have always been a part of MoC, but being an official member is something that gives me joy and I feel so honoured. I’ve always said I love what Bambo is doing; it is something that gives hope to Nigerian athletes because now they know they have a system that is working, a good coach like Deji Aliu, and everything else is in place.

“I will do my best because I have already seen that there is a standard here which I must maintain. I do not want to brag or say too much now, but it has always been my dream to raise athletes who will be at the top, so this is my opportunity to fulfill that dream.”

MoC Founder/CEO Bambo Akani believes that MoC athletes have a lot to gain from Alozie’s wealth of experience, which will also go a long way in improving their professional careers.

He said: “I think it is a momentous occasion in Nigeria; we have to bear in mind that this is the last individual Olympic medalist on the track for Nigeria, as far back as Sydney 2000, so it is really exciting to have her in Nigeria, even if it’s only for three months, to introduce our kids to the hurdles and to show them a piece of what it took to get to the top of the world.

“I mean this lady was 300th of a second from an Olympic GOLD and those who know her story know that she was the best in the world during that period and would probably have won GOLD if not for the tragic thing that happened at that time. So we are very excited to have her as part of MoC. It’s going to be an exciting year.”

After winning several laurels for Nigeria, Alozie switched nationalities to Spain in 2001 and has lived there ever since.