Nigeria’s track and field team to the delayed 2020 Olympics which starts next week Friday will be aiming to set a new benchmark of performance, better than the one relay and three individual medals their predecessors won 25 years ago at the Games of the XXVI Olympiad in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
And in doing this, a lot of records set by their predecessors will have to be broken, new marks set.
The athletes will be competing in nine events in Tokyo viz the men and women 100m and 200m, the men’s Shot Put, the women’s 400m, 100m hurdles, Discus Throw, Hammer Throw, Long Jump and Triple Jump.
On paper, a few of the records look achievable while a new mark will be set in the women’s Hammer Throw as no Nigerian as ever competed in the event at the games.
For the men, the trio of Divine Oduduru, Enoch Adegoke and Utshoritse Itshekiri will be hoping to make history in the 100m.
Since Davidson Ezinwa ran in the final of the 100m event 25 years ago (1996) in Atlanta, no Nigerian sprinter has made it to the last eight.
In fact only Ezinwa and Olapade Adeniken have made it all the way to the final of the blue ribband event with the duo’s seventh place finish (Adeniken,10.12 in 1992 and Ezinwa’s 10.14 run in 1996) one of the records Adegoke, Oduduru and Itshekiri will be aiming to break.
To dream of achieving this, they will have to make the final of the event.
In the 200m, Oduduru will also be aiming to become the second Nigerian sprinter to run in the final of the two sprint events (100m/200m) after Adeniken who placed fifth (20.50) in the half lap race in 1992.
Five years ago on his debut, Oduduru didn’t make it beyond the semifinal stage. Since then, the 25 year old has grown into a world class sprinter evidenced by his incredible feat two years ago at the NCAA final when he ran 9.86 seconds (100m) and 19.73 seconds (200m) to successfully complete a sprint double, a feat Adeniken first performed in 1992.
In the Shot Put event, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi will be hoping for at least a repeat of his feat at the World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar where he made it to the final (placed eighth).
A repeat performance in Tokyo will be a new record of performance in the event by a Nigerian, better than that of Chima Ugwu who finished 21st best in the qualifiers and could not make it to the final reserved for the best 12 qualifiers at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia.
For the women, Blessing Okagbare will lead Grace Nwokocha and Rosemary Chukwuma in the race to better Mary Onyali’s seventh place finish in the 100m event at both the 1992 (11.15) and 1996 (11.13) Olympics.
While Nwokocha and Chukwuma will be making their debut, Okagbare will be making her fourth appearance at the games and hopefully second appearance in the blue ribband event final (placed eighth in 2012,11.01).
Onyali and Okagbare remain the only two Nigerians to race in the 100m final at the quadrennial games and the latter looks the surest best to break the record of performance set by the former.
To achieve this however, Okagbare will have to make her first global sprint final since 2015. She was a semifinalist at the Olympics five years ago in Rio.
In the 200m event she will also have to break Onyali’s third place finish (22.38) in 1996. A better performance than her bronze winning feat at the World Athletics Championship in Moscow in 2013 transferred to the Olympics stage will do the magic.
Another athlete, Favour Ofili will also compete in the 200m event. Currently the fastest African over the distance (20.30) going to the Olympics, Ofili will have to run inside 23 seconds to stand any chance of a podium finish.
For Tobi Amusan, the task of breaking Glory Alozie’s Sydney 2000 Olympics silver-medal winning performance (12.68) looks daunting but the 24 year old can dream of a podium finish in Tokyo if only she can run faster than Alozie’s 12.44 seconds African record.
She placed fourth at the World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar two years ago and has proved she has the high ocassion temperament.
In Ese Brume’s case, the whole nation will be hoping for a repeat of Chioma Ajunwa’s golden leap of 25 years ago.
Brume raised expectations at the end of May when she leapt farther than Ajunwa’s 7.12m golden leap to become the new African record holder (7.17m) in the Long Jump.
The 25 year old tops the world list going to Tokyo and looks a cast iron certainty for a podium finish. She can only equal Ajunwa’s record of an Olympic gold.
Ruth Usoro’s incredible leap to reckoning this season has made her a candidate for the final of the Triple Jump event at the games in Tokyo. The Nigerian record holder (14.50m) will easily break Chinonye Ohadugba’s 29th place (13.29m) finish at the 2008 Olymnpics in Beijing, China.
The same scenario is likely to play out in the women’s Discus Throw where Chioma Onyekwere will be aiming for a place in the final to better Chinwe Okoro’s 14th place finish (58.85m) five years ago at the Rio Olympics.
Onyekwere holds a 63.30m personal best this year which is a new Nigerian record.