Former Nigerian Olympic medalist, Falilat Ogunkoya has advised
Commonwealth and Africa’s fastest woman, Blessing Okagbare to pull the
brakes and save herself from burning out before the Rio 2016 Olympics.
In a chat with Saturday Sunsports, Ogunkoya, who represented Nigeria at several world and African meets, including the 1996 and 2000 Olympics while commenting on issues on athletics in the country, warned that for Okagbare to shine at the Rio 2016 Olympics, she should streamline her calendar of competitions and desist from tasking herself too much in the coming 2015 season.
Blessing’s performances so far
You can not take anything away from Blessing. Competing in the ranks of 100, 200 and 4x100m and wining in all of this events, is indeed a remarkable feat that should be celebrated.
Fear of wear and tear before Rio 2016?
I don’t think she will burn herself out before 2016 Olympics, but in all fairness, I think she deserves a break and we should give her the time to recover from the rigours of featuring in double events for the past two years.
At the Commonwealth Games, she decided to do both the 100m and 200m events, and at the African Championships, she competed in the 100m and the relay. It is going to be a decision between her and her coach, when considering which events she will compete in next year.
I am aware that she is good at managing herself. Be that as it may, she needs to sit down with her coach and plan which competition she should feature in as her build up to the Olympics.
In my time, in 1998, I equally ran in the 200 and 400meters this was at the African Championship and I won gold in both races, with an African Championship record. There was this IAAF continental Championship and the World Cup, where I competed with the likes of Marion Jones and won gold.
Competing in this three events is something that the coach plans very well for the athlete.
In my case for instance, our focus was for me to do double, I won 2 gold at the African Championship and at the World Cup.
Dearth of Quarter millers in Nigeria?
You know, we call the 400m the real woman’s race. You have to be strong to get it done.
It takes that special athlete with that extra strength to get it done.
I think we can still have good quarter milers, It is all about identifying the athlete, then moulding and grooming her to fit into the role.
No athlete will wake up and start running 400m. It is a gradual process. We have to keep encouraging our coaches and athletes to be the best they can.
Constant criticisms of AFN
Criticisms are welcomed, especially when they are constructive, not when they are orchestrated solely to pull down and rubbish whatever progress is made for the interest of the association.
I as an individual is not part of such. I always tell whoever cares to listen that as stakeholders in the sport, we all own AFN.
If something is wrong, I expect us to sit down and talk about it with a vision of righting whatever we feel is wrong to take the sport to an enviable height.
Athletic is a sport with many medals. It is not just like football where, you play a team game. It is an individual sport and the best way to help the athletes maximize their potentials is to be focused on programmes that would benefit the athletes and their coaches because they are the major players in the field.
Athletes dumping Nigeria for other countries
Athletes competing for other countries to me is personal decision.
Are you going to tell them not to go? No.
When an individual reaches the age of 18, you are now considered as an adult, who is allowed to make his or her choices in life.
Athletes of Nigerian origin, donning the colours of other nations is not a new thing. There have been a couple of others, even in football that are saying they want to be for Nigeria, so be it.
I guess it is a question of different strokes for different folks.
The new comers that didn’t live up to expectation in Glasgow
They will have to go back and prepare harder. There is always room for improvement and they now understand that the stake is high.
There is the world championship and All African Games next year.
It will definitely be a stiff competition because I know that the expectations is already high.
NSF in Calabar
I am happy that the national sports festival has been thrown open. It will raise the standard of the competition and make it more fun. I know that some of the retired athletes are itching to come back.
There is no basis for complain anymore, If you can jump, run, a level playing field has ben provided, so let all and sundry come to showcase themselve
In a chat with Saturday Sunsports, Ogunkoya, who represented Nigeria at several world and African meets, including the 1996 and 2000 Olympics while commenting on issues on athletics in the country, warned that for Okagbare to shine at the Rio 2016 Olympics, she should streamline her calendar of competitions and desist from tasking herself too much in the coming 2015 season.
Blessing’s performances so far
You can not take anything away from Blessing. Competing in the ranks of 100, 200 and 4x100m and wining in all of this events, is indeed a remarkable feat that should be celebrated.
Fear of wear and tear before Rio 2016?
I don’t think she will burn herself out before 2016 Olympics, but in all fairness, I think she deserves a break and we should give her the time to recover from the rigours of featuring in double events for the past two years.
At the Commonwealth Games, she decided to do both the 100m and 200m events, and at the African Championships, she competed in the 100m and the relay. It is going to be a decision between her and her coach, when considering which events she will compete in next year.
I am aware that she is good at managing herself. Be that as it may, she needs to sit down with her coach and plan which competition she should feature in as her build up to the Olympics.
In my time, in 1998, I equally ran in the 200 and 400meters this was at the African Championship and I won gold in both races, with an African Championship record. There was this IAAF continental Championship and the World Cup, where I competed with the likes of Marion Jones and won gold.
Competing in this three events is something that the coach plans very well for the athlete.
In my case for instance, our focus was for me to do double, I won 2 gold at the African Championship and at the World Cup.
Dearth of Quarter millers in Nigeria?
You know, we call the 400m the real woman’s race. You have to be strong to get it done.
It takes that special athlete with that extra strength to get it done.
I think we can still have good quarter milers, It is all about identifying the athlete, then moulding and grooming her to fit into the role.
No athlete will wake up and start running 400m. It is a gradual process. We have to keep encouraging our coaches and athletes to be the best they can.
Constant criticisms of AFN
Criticisms are welcomed, especially when they are constructive, not when they are orchestrated solely to pull down and rubbish whatever progress is made for the interest of the association.
I as an individual is not part of such. I always tell whoever cares to listen that as stakeholders in the sport, we all own AFN.
If something is wrong, I expect us to sit down and talk about it with a vision of righting whatever we feel is wrong to take the sport to an enviable height.
Athletic is a sport with many medals. It is not just like football where, you play a team game. It is an individual sport and the best way to help the athletes maximize their potentials is to be focused on programmes that would benefit the athletes and their coaches because they are the major players in the field.
Athletes dumping Nigeria for other countries
Athletes competing for other countries to me is personal decision.
Are you going to tell them not to go? No.
When an individual reaches the age of 18, you are now considered as an adult, who is allowed to make his or her choices in life.
Athletes of Nigerian origin, donning the colours of other nations is not a new thing. There have been a couple of others, even in football that are saying they want to be for Nigeria, so be it.
I guess it is a question of different strokes for different folks.
The new comers that didn’t live up to expectation in Glasgow
They will have to go back and prepare harder. There is always room for improvement and they now understand that the stake is high.
There is the world championship and All African Games next year.
It will definitely be a stiff competition because I know that the expectations is already high.
NSF in Calabar
I am happy that the national sports festival has been thrown open. It will raise the standard of the competition and make it more fun. I know that some of the retired athletes are itching to come back.
There is no basis for complain anymore, If you can jump, run, a level playing field has ben provided, so let all and sundry come to showcase themselve
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