Athletics
COMMONWEALTH GAMES 2018: ATHLETES INTENSIFY TRAINING IN ABUJA, LAGOS AND PH
While most Nigerian citizens are in festive mood soaking the enjoyment of Christmas and New Year celebrations, the Ministry of Youth and Sports has revealed that athletes preparing for the Commonwealth Games are in various camps training for the competitions.
The Commonwealth Games are billed for April 2018. The Ministry of Youth and Sports began its first phase of camping on December 17 in Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja.
Boxers and players in table tennis and para table tennis are camping in Lagos, the weightlifters are in Abuja while Port Harcourt is hosting athletics and para pthletics.
Speaking on activities at the Brai Ayonote Boxing Gymnasium where the boxers are currently training, the camp Commandant Dr Segun Akinlotan said that a total of 32 boxers and four coaches led by Tony Konyegwachie will camp till January 16, 2018 for the first phase.
According to Akinlotan, the boxers are in high spirit. “The boxers and officials are in high spirit. Training kit including track suits, T-shirts, slippers and knickers have been supplied to the boxers. Feeding is okay and the atmosphere is generally conducive.
“By the end of the first phase of camping, the boxers will be reduced to 16 as the 2nd phase is billed to start from January 17th to 16th February 2018.”
Elsewhere at the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research Yaba Lagos, 16 players including 8 para table tennis players, 8 able players and 14 officials are camped.
Camp Commandant Ms Mbora Ikana Mbora said the players train twice daily at the Knock-up hall of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos and are well kitted for training.
“Feeding is adequate and timely as supervised by the Medical team. Haruna Quadri and two other para players Faith Bazuaye and Tope Ogunsanya have already qualified for the games. We are targeting a podium appearance”, Mbora said.
In Abuja, a total of 12 Weightlifters comprising seven female and five male are camping at Package B of the Abuja National Stadium.
The Camp Chaperone Mrs Chinedu Ezeala said that the lifters have shown great sense of responsibility and discipline.
“The weightlifters have obeyed camp rules to the latter and have displayed a great sense of responsibility. We want to ensure a podium performance at the forthcoming Commonwealth Games in Australia,” Ezeala stated.
The IAAF High Performance Center at the University of Port Harcourt is hosting 40 track and field athletes and nine Para athletes.
Camp Commandant and Assistant Director Elite Athletes Mrs Maria Wophill said athletes enjoyed a peaceful celebration on Christmas Day.
“We celebrated Christmas in camp and it was peaceful. There are no complaints on feeding.”
Mrs Wophill spoke further on preparations to get the best athletes for the Commonwealth Games
“Our first trial comes up on January 15, 2018. It will be an open trial as athletes who are not in camp will be allowed to fight for qualification.
The second Phase of camping will commence immediately after the trials as we expect changes in times and performance.
Facilities here are of high standards so we also expect good performances from the athletes,” Wophil said.
Chijindu Ujah has been recalled to Britain’s 4x100m squad for the World Athletics Relays in May, 10 months after serving his ban for a doping violation which resulted in his team being stripped of their silver medals at the Tokyo Olympics.
Sprinter Ujah was banned by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for 22 months in October 2022, which was backdated from August 2021 to June 2023. However, the AIU had cleared Ujah of intentionally taking prohibited substances.
Britain were stripped of the Tokyo silver after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld Ujah’s anti-doping rule violation, though former UK Athletics technical director Stephen Maguire had said he would be considered for selection again after his ban.
Ujah’s team mates Richard Kilty, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake also had their medals stripped, with Kilty saying they were left “devastated” since they had strictly followed the rules unlike Ujah.
All four sprinters were named in an eight-man 4x100m relay squad for the World Athletics Relays in the Bahamas on May 4-5, giving Ujah another shot to redeem himself before the Olympic Games in Paris from July 26-Aug. 11.
“They have had their fair share of challenges in recent years,” said Darren Campbell, British Athletics’ head of sprints, hurdles and relays.
“But I have had my own discussions with each and every member of the squad and know they are motivated, committed and focused on working together to reach Paris.”
-Reuters
World record holder in women’s 100m hurdles, Tobi Amusan, will later today attempt to surpass her personal best of 11.10 seconds in the 100m event at the Tom Jones Memorial Invitational hosted by the University of Florida this Friday
The race will feature another Nigerian, Favour Ofili. Both will be competing in a power-packed field that will include world championships finalist Tamari Davis and her compatriot Melissa Jefferson, who’s a former US champion as well as Jamaican duo Alana Reid and Kemba Nelson and Abby Steiner.
The 2023 African Games come to a close on Saturday after two weeks of intense competition in Accra, Ghana, with Egypt emerging as the best team by far and the athletics competition providing a stunning spectacle in the final week.
Accra is hosting a the 2003 African Games from 4-23 March, with a remarkable organisation and Egypt crowned as the best team, just six gold medals short of the astonishing milestone of 100 titles. Will they reach it in the final competitions of the event?
As is the case with the Olympic Games and in the Panam Games, the final week of competition is time to enjoy with athletics, a sport that usually brings African countries great success at every major event such as the Olympics or the World Athletics Championships.
Ethiopia, for example, went into the athletics competition with no gold medals after 14 days of the Games and now has five, just like Kenya, which has won five of its six African titles in athletics.
Over the past two days, two world-class stars and big favourites for Accra 2023 have been crowned African champions to raise the level of competition. They will also be competing for Olympic glory at Paris 2024: Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume, both from Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Amusan burst onto the scene when she set a new world record in the women’s 110m hurdles with a time of 12.12, eight hundredths better than the old record set by USA’s ‘Keny’ Harrison. She also won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene in 2022.
After a difficult year in 2023, when she missed three anti-doping tests (she didn’t test positive) and received a suspension that was later lifted, and a sixth place at the World Championships in Budapest, Amusan came to Accra as the overwhelming favourite and she didn’t disappoint.
The Nigerian was the fastest in the semi-finals with an easy mark for her (13.03) and won the final in 12.89, almost a second slower than her world record time. It was her fifth African title (three in the 100m hurdles and two in the 4x100m relay) and she will be competing for glory at Paris 2004 against the USA’s Harrison and Nia Ali, and Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho Quinn, the reigning Olympic champion.
Also from Nigeria, Ese Brume is one of the best long jumpers in the world, with a bronze medal at the last Olympic Games, a silver at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene in 2022 and a bronze in Doha in 2019. She also won silver at the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade in 2022 and came to Accra as a three-time African champion and two-time Commonwealth champion.
After a disappointing sixth place finish at last year’s World Athletics Championships in Budapest, the Ijebu-Ode native was the most high-profile athlete in the long jump final at Accra 2023, and she didn’t disappoint despite the opposition she faced.
With the best jump ever at the African Games, surpassing the old record of 6.79 set by South Africa’s Janice Josephs in 2015, Brume jumped 6.92 to show she is ready to take on the likes of USA’s Tori Tara Davis and Jasmine Moore, Serbia’s Ivana Vuleta and Germany’s Malaika Mihambo at the Stade de France in August. Burkina Faso’s Mathe Jasmine Koala took silver with a remarkable jump of 6.81
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