Olympics: Team Nigeria seeks better outing at London Olympics

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines, Soccer, Sports, Track & Field Tuesday, July 24th, 2012

July 25, 2012 by Kazeem Busari

When the athletes flying Nigeria’s flag at the London Olympics begin their events, their aims will not be to just feature in the Games but to win medals and etch their names in history. They have the chance, just as every athlete from other participating nations, to return home with medals.

Nigeria’s first medal at the Olympics was at Tokyo 1964 when Nojim Maiyegun won bronze in the men’s light middleweight boxing. Since then Nigeria has won a total of 23 medals, three of which are gold.

While some analysts do not believe the Nigerian contingents can come up with a result in London, others are holding onto the faith that Team Nigeria has the potential to be world champions.

The most memorable of Nigeria’s outing at the Olympics remain the Atlanta’96 where Chioma Ajunwa leapt to gold in the women’s long jump and the Dream Team defeated star-studded, Brazil and Argentina on their way to wining gold in football event.

The football team came close to repeating the 1996 feat at the Beijing Olympics but Argentina would not let that happen again, not with Lionel Messi inspiring the South Americans. Besides the entertaining football, the other high points of the Games were Chika Chukwumerije’s bronze medal finish in taekwondo, Blessing Okagbare’s third-place finish in the women’s long jump and the bronze won by the women’s 4x100m relay team.

The comment from many Nigerians after the Beijing Games was if only they had put in a little more effort perhaps Team Nigeria could have finished with four gold medals.

All that could change in London as Chukwumerije and Okagbare get another chance to grab gold on the world stage, and the basketball team make their first Olympics appearance following a fairy-tale qualifying round in Venezuela.

One salient part of Nigeria’s achievement at the Olympics is the performance of the boxers. After Maiyegun’s bronze medal finish at the 1964 Olympics, Nigeria got back on the medals table in 1972 and 1984 through boxing.

At the Munich’72 Olympics, Isaac Ikhouria narrowly lost the chance to be in the boxing final but eventually finished with bronze in the men’s light heavyweight class.

Peter Konyegwachie, however, did better than his predecessors when he won the first Olympics silver medal for Nigeria in the men’s featherweight at the Los Angeles’84 Games. David Izonritei and Richard Igbineghu were to add to the silver achievement with their performances at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics.

In all, boxing has fetched five out of the 23 medals Nigeria got at the Olympics. The number is likely to increase as Muideen Akanji, Lukman Lawal and Edith Ogoke begin their medal quest in London next week.

Besides boxing and athletics, only weightlifting and taekwondo have won medals for Nigeria at the Olympics. But the performances of canoe and table tennis athletes at recent qualifiers around the world have raised the hope that Nigeria may just finish with medals in these events.

When Ruth Ogbeifo won silver at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, it did not surprise many because she had won bronze at the 1999 World Championships in Athens. In fact she was tipped to win the gold until Colombia’s María Urrutia overtook her in the -75ks class.

This time, it will be Felix Ekpo and Maryam Usman lifting the weights in London. Usman finished fifth at the Beijing Olympics and won bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Paris, but this year, she has won gold at the African weightlifting championships in Kenya while preparing for the Olympics.

Nigeria may not have the likes of the late Sunday Bada, Davidson and Osmond Ezinwa, Falilat Ogunkoya and Olusoji Fasuba in London, but the Team Nigeria in London cannot be underrated, considering their recent performances at major events.

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