No fewer than five Nigerian track & field elite athletes will be seeking to be crowned African Games champion for either the second straight edition or third when the athletics event of the 13th African Games begins on Monday.
While none of the six gold medalists at the inauguration edition of the Games returned as African Games champion in the second edition held in Lagos, Nigeria
in 1973, the story changed from 1978 courtesy of Modupe Oshikoya who made history in 1973 as the first Nigerian to win three individual gold medals at a single edition of the games and also the first to successfully defend an African Games title!
Oshikoya who won the 100m hurdles, the long jump and the high jump in 1973 successfully defended the long and high jump titles in 1978 in Algiers, Algeria.
Since Oshikoya blazed the trail, a number of Nigerian athletes have successfully defended African Games titles.
The tradition looks set to continue this edition as Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Sade Olatoye, Chioma Onyekwere and Chukwuebuka Enekwechi are set to defend the titles they won five years ago in Rabat, Morocco in 2019.
Amusan: Amusan will be seeking to make history as the second Nigerian woman after Vivian Chukwuemeka to win the same African Games gold medal in three.
She will also equal Adewale Olukoju’s feat for the men in the discus throw event. Amusan will also be seeking to set two Games records in back to back editions after running 12.68 in Rabat to break Glory Alozie’s record.
Brume: Like her friend, Amusan, Brume will also be seeking to become the second woman to successfully defend a long jump title after Oshikoya who won the long jump gold in 1973 and 1978.
Brume won her first gold in Rabat in 2019 and will be looking to emulate Oshikoya in Accra, Ghana.
Olatoye: Sade knows Chukwuemeka’s three straight Shot Put title win may prove herculean but she has the chance to become the second Nigerian woman to at least successfully defend a shot put gold medal in the history of the games.
Onyekwere: Chioma surprised all in Birmingham in 2022 when she became the first Nigerian woman to be crowned Commonwealth Games champion in the Discus throw event. She will be aiming to also become the first Nigerian woman to successfully defend an African Games gold in the event.
Enekwechi: Thank God for Chukwuebuka that will at least have a man to defend an African Games title. The women have become the more successfully and yet are the most neglected especially in terms of having more women as coaches in any major competition.
Chukwuebuka will be defending the shot put title he set a games record to win in 2019, and if he wins, becomes the first Nigerian man to do so.
Source/Complete Sports/WhatsApp
