Team Nigeria’s athletics coach, Gabriel Okon, has revealed why his athletes failed at the
just concluded 16th IAAF World Championships in London.
According to him, most of the people commenting on the selection of the quartet that ran in
the final of the women’s 4x400m final in London are ignorant of what happened in the lead up
to the race.
Many critics blamed the coaches for fielding Abike Egbeniyi who arrived London from Nigeria
for the competition barely 32 hours to the race and insisted
Emerald Egwin who ran in the semi-finals where the team ran 3:25.40 seconds should have been
retained.
Some others also criticised the coaches for running Nigreia’s pre-championships fastest
athlete in the pool,Patience Okon George in the first leg,arguing that she should have
anchored the team.
‘I can understand the ordinary people on the streets but not former Nigeria internationals
who should have strived to find out why Egwin did not run.The
truth is Egwin was not fit to run on the day as she complained of stomach upset among other
complaints.The problem started in the semi-finals and she barely warmed up for the race.We
decided to gamble on her because there was no alternative.This informed our decision to ask
for Abike to come so that we could at least have an alternative if Egwin does not recover on
time.
‘Unfortunately she didn’t and we had to use the only option available and she didn’t
disappoint.Our chances of getting a medal were reduced the day we lost
Margaret Bamgbose,one of the three girls who competed in the open 400m to injury.We knew it
would be a herculean task because some of the other teams rested athletes for the final but
we couldn’t.
‘So people used the time ran in the semi-final to automatically assume we could have won if
the time was repeated in the final.Britain ran faster in the semis (3:24.74) than in the
final (3:25.00) and still won a silver medal inspite of the fact that they brought in a
fresh leg,400m hurdler,Elidih Doyle in place of Perri Shakes-Drayton while Poland who came
third (3:25.41) introduced two fresh legs,Aleksandra Gaworska and Justyna Swiety in place of
Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz and Martyna Dabrowska.Two years ago we ran 3:23 in the semis but ran
3:25 in the final and we didn’t change any athlete.If we were able to rest George and Yinka
Ajayi for example the result may have been different but we didn’t have that luxury.My
colleagues who should undertand better should not turn to armchair critcs,’said Okon who
also reacted to the criticism that the best athlete in the pool should have anchored the
team.
‘From what happened in the open 400m,Bamgbose and Ajayi were clearly our fastest
legs.Bamgbose ran 51.57 seconds in the first round heat while Ajayi ran 51.58 seconds
against Okon George’s 51.83 seconds.In the semi-final Ajayi ran 52.10 seconds to emerge the
fastest againt Bamgbose (52.23 seconds) and Okon George (52.60 seconds).So we fielded our
fastest athlete to anchor the team.’
