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 Daily Independent Online.
* Monday, August 09, 2004.
Athens, another tough turf for
weightlifters
By
Taiwo Alimi
Senior Correspondent, Lagos
Mrs.
Kofo Nwokedi, the President of Nigeria Weightlifting Federation (NWF)
surely has the heart of a lion. She talks big and acts tough leading
Nigerian weightlifters to a good haul of medals available at the last All
Africa Games in Abuja. She was not daunted by the dope scandal that
rocked the team shortly before the Games. She stood tall to wrestle
valuable medals from the northern African countries, notably Egypt,
Tunisia and Morocco.
Recently
in Lagos, the focused sports administrator who is also the second
vice-president of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) in her tough
talking manner assured that Nigeria would celebrate medal haul in
weightlifting at the Athens Olympics kicking off in Athens in less than
two weeks.
She
said, "I must confess to you that the lifters have been kept busy
since they have been chosen for the great task, and I must also confess
to you that reports reaching me from their training camp in Bulgaria is
overwhelming, they have been improving everyday as they take their
preparations seriously.
They
are cool-headed because each one of them wants his or her name written in
gold. I can assure you that weightlifting is one sport Nigerians are
looking forward to for brilliant performance and they have promised to
lift the country once again
at the Games.
Even
the fact that the country would be parading only three
Lifters
would not disturb her as she insisted that they are all potential gold
medallists.
“We
should not be disturbed that unlike the last Sydney 2000 Olympics where
the nation had up to five slots, Nigeria could only present three lifters
for the Games. I can tell you that some countries would present only one
lifter each so we should count our blessings that we are going with three
good lifters. In-fact, some countries would not have any athlete to hoist
their flag at the Games”.
Looking
way back to 1896 when the first modern Olympics made its debut in Athens, Greece and about 44
years later when Nigeria had her first go at it in Helsinki, Finland the
most populous black nation has not gotten it right in weightlifting
despite its giant status in the continent.
The
Nigerian Weightlifting delegation to the 7th All Africa Games, in South
Africa had a haul of 28 Gold, 5 Silver and 6 Bronze medals and set 21 new
African records.
At
the World Championships in Athens, Greece in 1999, Ruth Ogbeifo won 3
Bronze while Bilkisu Musa got a Bronze Medal. In Abuja the hosts won a
total of 14 Gold, 17 Silver and 5 bronze Medals. This was followed
shortly after at the Afro Asian Games, held in India, where the
weightlifting team won 4 Gold, 5 Silver and 2 Bronze Medals.
The
story is however different in the summer games where the country has
celebrated only one silver in the sport and it was a through the efforts of Ruth
Ogbeifo four years ago in Sydney, Canada.
Nwokedi
knows this fact quite well and she would tell whoever cares to listen
that the Olympics is another ball game, “I must tell you that Olympics is
different from other games. It is the assemblage of the best athletes in
the world and only the best can go away with medal. But let me tell you
again that in the last Olympics we would have ended with a gold but for
body weight that reduced us to silver”.
Ogbiefo
may not be around again but the country can still boast of some of the
best athletes going by their performance at last year World Championships
in Vancouver, Canada. They are Franca Gbodo (58kg), Patience Lawal (53kg)
and Joke Adetola (48kg), Ayodeji Anike (63kg), and Ijeoma Nwatu (75kg).
Mike Enamson(+105kg) tops the list of the male lifters that also has Lawi
Rilwan (94kg), Jacob Edward (62kg) and Dare Alabi (77kg).
“Weightlifting
is a tricky game and unless you understand it, you will never know why
some people are not winning. But I can assure you this time that these
girls are 'buttered', they know their contemporaries and the best will
come out of them and I want to assure Nigerians that our hard work will
never be in vain. We are going to come back with victory and I know come
August, Nigeria will be singing victory song", added Nwokedi.
It
is quite easy to get caught up in her enthusiasm but the candid scrutiny
of world weightlifting points the other way. Nigeria would need all the
luck in the whole wide world to come out with gold. At best a bronze
should send Nigerians onto the street in ecstasy. The Eastern bloc has
for ages dominated the sports, talking about Romania, Bulgaria, Czech and
Slovakia. The other super powers in the sport are Poland, Kahzastan and
Belarus.
The
athletes that just left their training base in Bulgaria had been under
the watchful eyes of Coach Ivan Ganev, a Bulgarian who has been with the
Nigerian lifters for quite some time.
On
paper, Enamson, the only heavyweight lifter in the team is the highest
ranked in world ratings in the Nigerian side. According to the
International Weightlifting Federation, (IWF), he is 34th in the world of
top 55 lifters in the +105 kg division. The Nigerian would have to beat
No 1 in that event, Assad Saeed Saif of Qatar, Bulgaria’s Tsagaev Alan
and Russia’s Smortchkov to get top medal zone in Athens.
Another
promising lifter to watch in the Team Nigeria is Rilwan Lawi. The
Nigerian is ranked 40th in the world of 58 lifters across the globe as
well as Edward Jacob in the 85kg division.
As
it were, Nwokedi would no doubt need lots prayers to better the one
silver in Sydney.
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