Daily Independent Online.
*
Wednesday, June 30, 2004.
Concentrate on relay teams in Athens -Igwe tells
ministry
By Taiwo Alimi
Senior
Correspondent,
Lagos
National athletic coach Tobias Igwe wants
the sports ministry to concentrate on the relays if the nation must get medals
in athletics at August’s Olympic games in Athens, Greece.
Igwe who discovered Mary Onyali-Omagbemi
and the sprint sensation Uchenna Emedolu while speaking with Daily Independent
in Abuja recently said Nigeria has the greatest advantage for medal in the 4 x
100 relay male and female event. “It is the usual thing for all countries
at big stages like the Olympics to identify their strong points and concentrate
on them and that is exactly what we should do to get medals in
athletics”.
He reasoned that the nation is blessed with
good sprinters who with adequate preparation are capable of picking one of the medals at stake in the
relays.
“At the moment, I can beat my chest
that we can put together a relay team that can beat the Americans, Britons and
the Bahamas put together”.
Igwe went on to analyse the chances of the
team. “Aside from the duo of Deji Aliu and Uchenna Emedolu there are other
younger athletes in Aaron Egbele, Musa Deji and Soji Fasugba who have shown
that they can hold their own in the world of athletics. All these athletes I
have mentioned are capable of maintaining 10.1 or 10.2 at any stage and if
Emedolu and Aliu can just push themselves a little harder to achieve sub ten, I
do not see any country that can boast of what we have and it is high time we
utilise this advantage.” added Igwe fondly called Toblow by young and
old.
On the women’s team, the veteran
coach said the country is witnessing death of quality sprinters that would take
over from the era of Onyali-Omagbemi and Falilat Ogunkoya calling for the
Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to intensify on its catch them young
programme.
