Ten years ago when Usain Bolt took the world by storm after running World Records in the men’s 100m, 200m and 4x100m relays at the Olympic Games in Beijing, it was an announcement to the world that the Jamaicans had arrived and were definitely doing something right.
Trying Times… Nigerian athletes (from left) Divine Oduduru, Tega Odele, Obinna Metu and Ogho-Oghene Egwero asking questions about the future of athletics in Nigeria.
The interesting thing about Bolt’s development and progression in the sport is the fact that he was home-grown. Unlike the previous generation of athletes, many of whom had schooled in the US, Bolt was born, bred and produced in Jamaica.
Bolt is not the only sprinting legend Jamaica has produced, especially when you consider the likes of former 200m Olympic and Commonwealth champion, Don Quarrie, who equalled the men’s 100m and 200m World Records in the 1970s, or amazon Merlene Ottey who has won more individual World Championships medals than any man or woman in Athletics history. However, there was something very emphatic about Bolt’s dominance that forced the world to pay attention.
Even world powers USA with an estimated population of over three hundred million people, had to admit that Jamaica, a country of less than three million people, was now a threat to their supremacy. And so the superlative performances of Bolt and some of his compatriots – Asafa Powell, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Veronica Campbell-Brown, and more recently Elaine Thompson and Shericka Jackson, further underlined Jamaica’s status as a powerhouse in the sprints.
Prior to the Bolt era, Jamaica’s best position at the IAAF World Championships was 8th – achieved in 1983, 1991 and 2007 respectively. After Bolt burst on the scene, they finished 2nd to the US in 2009, 3rd behind the US and Kenya in 2011, 3rd in 2013, and 2nd to Kenya in 2015. Most of these medals were gotten from the sprints, and Bolt was a key factor in the achievement of these results.
However, at the 2017 World Championships in London, which was Bolt’s final outing before calling time on his illustrious career, Jamaica finished a distant 15th on the medals table with just one Gold and three Bronze medals.
Many pundits and enthusiasts suggest that Jamaica’s over-dependence on Bolt was responsible for this dismal outing. This is not very different from Nigeria’s situation where in almost a decade, Blessing Okagbare has been the sole burden bearer of the hopes of the Nigerian people – a nation of almost 200 million people. And so a country which used to be regarded as a force to be reckoned with in the sprints, could not win a single medal in Track and Field at the last two editions of the Olympic Games.
Of the 13 Olympic medals Nigeria has won in Athletics over the years, only two come from the Long Jump: Chioma Ajunwa’s Gold from Atlanta ’96 and Okagbare’s Silver from Beijing 2008. Glory Alozie accounts for one medal (100m Hurdles), while eight medals were gotten in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays. The remaining two medals were won by Mary Onyali and Falilat Ogunkoya in the 200m and 400m respectively.
But while many do not expect Jamaica’s Track and Field to recover from Bolt’s retirement, I do not share these sentiments. Of course it is expected that Bolt’s absence will be felt by his country; after all even the world of Track and Field has not remained the same, going by how phenomenal he was. The multiple World Record holder who was at last month’s Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast didn’t seem too impressed with the performance of his compatriots and even had to tweet afterwards: “Did I retire too soon?”
However, even though I consider it almost impossible to produce another Usain Bolt, Jamaica seems to be getting it right in a way. They used to be known as a sprinting powerhouse, but going by their recent emergence in other events, it appears that the Caribbean nation is metamorphosing into a jack of all trades after all, instead of putting all of their eggs in the proverbial basket – the sprints. At the 2018 Commonwealth Games, Jamaica produced medallists in various events ranging from the sprints, to the hurdles, the jumps, the throws and wait for it – the women’s 3000m Steeplechase.
They won Silver and Bronze in the women’s 100m, Bronze in the men’s 100m, Gold and Silver in the women’s Triple Jump, Gold and Silver in the 110m Hurdles, Bronze in the men’s 400m, Gold in the women’s 3000m Steeplechase, Silver and Bronze in the women’s 400m, Gold in the women’s 400m Hurdles, Bronze in the men’s 400m Hurdles, Silver in the women’s 200m, Gold and Silver in the men’s Discus throw, Gold in the women’s Shot put, Bronze in the women’s 800m, Silver and Bronze in the 100m Hurdles, Silver and Bronze in the 4x100m relays, and Gold and Bronze in the 4x400m relays.
What an array of medals from diverse events! Now that the 2018 IAAF Diamond League has kicked off, most of these medallists for Jamaica have been listed to compete in the series and will go ahead to rub shoulders with the best athletes in the world while honing their skills and making a livelihood for themselves in the process.
The population of Lagos State alone is more than six times that of Jamaica, yet Nigeria returned with only four medals in Athletics from the same competition. As long as we continue cutting corners by relying on age cheats, whilst also refusing to make the welfare of our athletes a priority or neglecting to build the right structures, we will make no meaningful progress.
The post Track & field: Nigeria just like Jamaica, can become a jack of all trades appeared first on Vanguard News.
Track & field: Nigeria just like Jamaica, can become a jack of all trades
