Top Stories
Exposed! N100b road contracts scam rocks Edo
From COLLINS EKE, Benin
AN alleged
monumental fraud running into billions of naira allegedly squandered on the
Benin City road network, by Governor Oserhiemen Osunbor has sparked off a
cold war in Edo State....
'Independence Day is time to bless Nigeria...
Let's
celebrate our country’
Being a keynote address by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, President, Believers Loveworld
Inc. (a.k.a Christ Embassy) at the Grand Launch of the 2008 edition of ReachOut
Nigeria...
Presidency
starves INEC of funds
By CHUKS EHIRIM, Abuja
THE Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC), still gasping for breath, amid unending
attacks from the public, surprisingly, in recent times has been suffering
.....
Nigeria
at 48: No cause for cheers - AC leader
From CHUKS EHIRIM, Abuja
AS Nigerians take stock of the dividends of 48 years of freedom from colonial
rule, while curiously awaiting the mandatory Independence Anniversary...
MIKANO
Generators
By KELECHI DECA
MIKANO Generators
is a subsidiary of Mikano International Limited, a company with 27 years experience
in the areas of Building/Civil Engineering Construction and Steel...
ReachOut Nigeria
campaign reaches climax
By AZUKA MORDI
AT the grand launch of this year's edition of the ReachOut Nigeria with Rhapsody
of Realities campaign, President of Believers Loveworld (also known as) Christ
Embassy, Pastor Chris....
NEWS
• Shake-up imminent
in ANPP
• As Third Mainland bridge
re-opens: Lagosians heave sigh of relief
• Court orders arrest of
PDP chieftain in Kaduna
• Imo deputy governor clashes
with kinsmen
• Principal,
vice escape kidnap attack
• Village
head, four others quizzed
• Group alerts of plot to
rip-off Rivers officials
• Forum cautions Ijaws on
minister for Niger Delta
• National Identity Cards
in a fix
• Group wants WAEC probed
• Nobody can stop my judicial
commission of inquiry –Jang
• Fayose commends Oni's
unity govt plan
• Shun ostentatious living,
Moslems told
• NEMA advises stake-holders
on disaster management
• I'm
okay with JTF operations –New Defence Chief
• Monarchs endorse Akpabio
for second term
• Anambra PDP Crisis:
Ubah hails Gana's committee
• Rivers to get tourism
dev. commission
• COREN goes tough on erring
members
• 22 German students take
courses in Hausa
• Varsity don raises alarm
over materialism
• Speak your mother-tongue,
Ohakim tells Nigerians
Damola dares to be the best
By DIPO OKUBANJO
AMID all the shenanigans that characterised Nigeria's preparation for the
recently held 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, only one name-Olusoji
Fasuba-hugged the headlines as the country's brightest individual medal prospect.
The pundits, apparently, hinged their permutations on the fact that Fasuba
was the only sprinter rated as world class among the horde of Nigerian athletes
billed to compete in Beijing.
Fasuba's defeat in quick successions by obscure compatriots a few weeks to
the Games would not even deter incurable optimists from sticking to their
predictions. The rest is history.
At a time when Team Nigeria's hope for a medal was fast thinning at the Olympics,
succour from the unexpected. Blessing Okagbare, who had failed to make the
final cut in the women's long jump, returned to win a bronze medal following
the disqualification of another jumper.
Then Damola Osayomi was soon to seize the initiative as she led the Nigerian
women's 4x100m relay quartet to another bronze medal winning effort. Before
then, Damola had caused a sensation in the early days of the athletics competition,
when she returned the fastest time in the first round of the 100m event.
Damola led the qualifiers for round two of the Olympic women's 100m competition
in the Bird's Nest, winning heat eight in a time of 11.13sec. The Nigerian,
looked good in beating home one of the pre-Games favourites Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie
of the Bahamas and Daria Korczynska of Poland, who qualified second and third-fastest
of the 40 athletes to progress. At the Olympic level, an athlete aspiring
to finish within the medal zone requires a great measure of consistency in
his or her performance. Surprisingly, Damola, who had received rave reviews
in the media across the globe after her initial effort, was to run 11.44 sec
(a far cry from her 11.08 personal best) to place eight in the semi-final
of the 100m.Remarkably though, she was able to improve on her personal best
over the 200m where she ran 22.27 sec to finish sixth in the quarter-final.
"I worked so hard to be in the final but it did not work out, though
I'm not disappointed," Damola said afterwards. "I still have many
years ahead of me and I know I will do better on the world stage in the nearest
future."
At the moment she may not belong to the league of superwomen in world athletics,
but the 22-year-old has in the last three years established herself as Nigeria
and nay Africa's number one female sprinter. This she demonstrated by winning
gold in both the 100 and the 200m events at the 2007 All Africa Games in Algiers
where she beat veteran Vida Anim of Ghana and a raft of compatriots like Franca
Idoko, Gloria Kemasuode and ageless Endurance Ojokolo.
If there was any doubt about her supremacy, Damola chose no other stage than
the African Athletics Championship (Addis Ababa 2008) to banish the thought.
Again she carted away gold in the 100 and the 200m at the continental showpiece,
after which she won yet another double at the All Nigeria Open Athletics Championships.
Damola is simply trying to imbibe a tradition set by fellow Nigerians like
Modupe Osikoya and Mary Onyali, who as female sprinters reigned as the best
in Africa and flaunted their stuff among the best in the international athletics
circuit.
"I went to Beijing with a mission, and that was to experience first hand
what it takes to compete at that level. I wanted to know how it is to handle
the pressure at every stage and move on with it.
"Our relay race was tough. It was more of a psychological warfare and
I am happy we got something out of it.
"Most importantly, I think I have age on my side, such that it's possible
for me to be at three more editions of the Olympics," said Damola.
Even while reveling in her modest accomplishment at the Beijing Olympics,
Damola is not oblivious of the odds she faces in her determination to excel.
Based in the U.S for the past three years, the University of Texas undergraduate
said she probably would ever have made it to the Olympics if she was still
in Nigeria.
“It is very difficult to be an athlete in Africa. Everything to support
an athlete has to do with money: from physiotherapists to coaches, to masseurs
and the best facilities,” she lamented.
Her assertion is buttressed by the fact that overseas funding and training,
rather than patronage from the home governments had boosted the number of
medals won by most African athletes at the Beijing Olympics. Indeed a number
of Nigerian athletes like female hurdler Gloria Alozie and sprinter Francis
Obikwelu had some years back switched allegiance to Spain and Portugal respectively
citing lack of support from the sport establishment.
But the issue of defection does not cross Damola's mind presently. She wants
to channel her efforts toward improving on her time and ultimately winning
a major international honour.
