A BATON FOR TOKYO

By Enefiok Udo-Obong

I sat and watched the events unfold with a smile and a tear. That contradictory mix of emotions, only sports can guarantee that. It was the Lagos State hosted Open Athletics Meet and the Teslim Balogun Stadium was a beehive of activity. Athletes had come from around the continent to compete alongside our home-based for another chance at booking places to Tokyo for the much delayed Olympic Games. The Olympics obviously holds a great value in my heart. It was at this biggest of fiestas that my greatest feats in sports occurred. You do not often boast of such a near perfect record. Two Olympic Games, two medals (one Gold and one Bronze), a national record, an African record and a promise of National Honours and House (Yet to be redeemed.)

So you would not need to search for so long to see where the smiles on my face emanated from. Seeing four young girls run an incredible race, getting the relay baton through one after the other to finally cross the finish line and book a place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic brought out the emotion in me. The jubilations, the back patting, the sheer joy was nothing but infectious as my mind wandered in nostalgia to a period over two decades when I had same aspirations on the biggest sporting stage that these damsels have just booked passage to.

My smile too was in acknowledgement of the crowd at the stadium. The Lagos State Sports Commission had invited schools to come and share in the experience and also participate in the invitational relays for secondary schools. These energetic young kids were given a glimpse to what our nation can be like when united for a cause. The performances no doubt would have inspired some would-be Olympians our there amongst the kids. It was an experience they would cherish for a long time.

With the celebrations of our ladies clinching a spot in Tokyo was equally the disappointment of our men’s teams failing to qualify in both the 4 x 100m and the 4 x 400m relays. While the men’s 4 x 100m seemed closer to qualification, the disappointment of the quarter-milers sent the tears down my cheeks. It is understandable. After being involved in a team that achieved so much success in the continental and world stage, I almost came to assume that success in that event was more of a birthright for Nigerians. More so, having seen closely the effort and the talent at the disposal of the coaches, I believed that the team that failed to make the cut had every talent available to meet the near pedestrian qualifying time for the Tokyo Games. What then really went wrong?

I could not fault the effort of the quarter milers. They were determined and focused. Neither could I question the talent in the team. Having been involved in many 4 x 400m teams in my career, these group of guys were more talented than most of the teams I competed in ( maybe with the exception of the Olympic Gold Medal winning team in Sydney). So why did they falter? With the elements like the weather and the atmosphere very favourable, I took a closer look at the coaching set up. With predominantly sprint-biased coaches overseeing them, there was a certain lack of tactical nuance within the set-up. I saw effort and time spent on the sprint relays in training without similar adequate attention paid to the 4 x 400m team. It was like the belief in them was not solid.

With 4 x 400m relay bringing Nigeria’s first medal in Olympic at the Los Angeles ‘84, that event ought to be our pride and given special attention. We should make every Olympic a celebration of the event. The event has given us a complement of all medals in the Olympics, 1 Gold, 1 Silver and 2 Bronze medals making it our most successful Olympic event. This should be an indication that our strength is here and we must work to make it our signature event. It is about time we treat it as such. The Athletics Federation of Nigeria needs to seriously see that we have a relay programme. Employing a consultant for both relays not a bad idea. And unlike many professions or areas, having participated and succeeded in the relays makes one a vital resource in transferring success to others. So much in the relays depend more on experience than theoretical knowledge, but having both is a great advantage.

So as Team Nigerian heads off to the digitally advanced Asian state of Japan, we may be represented in only two of a possible five relay events. For a country that prides itself as an athletics power-house, that is just not good enough. Some may rightly blame infighting within the boardroom of the Nigerian athletics family but we should never be in a position where qualification is left to the last moments of a major championships.

The Olympic Games are just around the corner. We expect that when the flames go up in the opening ceremony and the fiesta begins, whoever is wearing the green and white of Nigeria would put their all irrespective of the past, and bring more smiles than tears to an expectant nation.