Fasuba v Emedolu

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Officials boycott Games over unpaid allowances
By GBOLAHAN DADA
Tuesday , April 18, 2006

Photo: Sun News Publishing

The on-going 15th National Sports Festival, holding in Abeokuta ran into severe hitches, Monday morning, as officiating officials opted to boycott the events over unpaid allowances.

Volleyball, handball and other events slated for Alake Sports Centre could not hold, as the officiating officials refused to perform their duties.

“We are owed and they have refused to pay us’’, the angry officials tersely fumed.

Meanwhile, there are fears too, that the Basketball final for men and women, slated for yesterday evening, might not hold as well.

This followed threats by the officiating officials to boycott the games if they were not settled before that time.

Non or late payment of entitlements has continued to rubbish the sports festival, despite claims by Dr Amos Adamu, Co-ordinator of The Main Organising Committee (MOC), to the effect that officials have been paid and so have no justification to hold the Games to ransom.

Football referees were the first to raise their voices over non payment of their allowances.
Meanwhile Chief Emeka Inyama, Team Abia’s leader of delegation and the state’s Commissioner for Sports and Social Development left Abeokuta yesterday morning for Abuja after a distress call that his Abuja residence was ransacked by robbers, reports Nigeriansportsonline.com.

The veteran journalist’s residence in Maitama, Abuja, was invaded by robbers, who had a field day carting away every property in sight, including his wife’s jewelries, even rugs.
“Even the security guards were beaten up. It was that bad. But thank God no life was lost”,
The robbery incident at the Inyamas Abuja residence is a follow up to the snatching of Frank Ilaboya’s car at a hotel premises on the outskirts of Abeokuta few days ago.

The car was later recovered at Sagamu by the police, where it was abandoned.
Ilaboya, is a television sports journalist and former president of the sports journalists union in Lagos State.

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James Confirms Quartermile Authority
As Fatima’s festival record goes into archives
From DuroIkhazuagbe, in Ijebu Ode, 04.17.2006

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Mobil quarter mile champion, Godday James Saturday confirmed his authority in the 400m event in the ongoing Gateway Games as he won the gold ahead of favourite Saul Weigopwa.
Running in the colours of Akwa Ibom here at the Gateway Stadium in Ijebu Ode, James ran the race in
45.61 secs, though it was way behind the 44.99 secs he chalked up to win the Commonwealth Games Trials in Abuja last February.
James, who is angling to better the records of both
Innocent Egbunike and Sunday Bada as his 400m career progresses, left no one in doubt of his determination to win the gold as his performances in the heats showed what to expect in the final.
Saul Weigopwa won the silver for Adamawa in 46.34 secs while Victor Isaiah of Delta State picked a consolatory bronze.
In the women’s quarter mile, Fatina Yusuf’s festival record was sent into the archives with a new record of 52.35 secs ran by Christy Ekpukhon of
Delta State.
The time was no where near the national record of 49.10m secs held by Falilat Ogunkoya-Osheku, who incidentally was on the sidelines to watch the race.
Enugu girl Joy Eze won the silver (52.02secs) and was followed to the finish line by Folashade Abugan of Ondo State in 53.21 secs.
Oyo State long distance runner Tawa Adedigba who had on Tuesday won the 5,000m yet again brought smiles to the faces of the state’s contingent when she coasted to the 1,500m gold in 4mins 22.47secs. The silver went to Grace Ebor of Cross River (4min.28.94 secs) while Funke Fadare of Edo won the bronze (4mins 47.14 secs).

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Nigeria finish with 17 medals

The Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia ended Sunday with the Nigerian team winning 17 medals.
The medals consist of four gold medals, six silver and seven bronze medals and left the country in 12th place in the overall medals table, ranked by number of gold medals won.
In the total-medals ranking though, Nigeria placed 13th as hosts Australia finished front runners on all counts with 221 medals, 84 of which are gold.

Nigeria’s gold medals came from; Adesoji Adekunle, who won the 100 meters race for Elite Athletes with a Disability (EAD) in the T12 class, Segun Toriola and Monday Merotohun in the men’s doubles table tennis event, Ruel Ishaku (open EAD powerlifting) in weightlifting and Njideka Iyiazi (women’s seated shot put EAD).

Disabled athlete, Virginia Ohagwu, started the silver medals swoop on Monday when she finished second behind Iyiazi in the women’s seated shot put EAD class.
Soji Fasuba would add to that later in the day when he came second in the prestigious 100 meters race.
Nigeria’s other silver medals were from; Otonye Iworima, women’s triple jump, Vivian Chukwuemeka, women’s shot put, Adura Olalehin in the light heavyweight division of the boxing event and Faith Obiora in the women’s single EAD table tennis.

The bronze medals came from Etinosa Eriyo (men’s 100 meters EAD T12), Vitalis Lanshima (men’s 200 meters EAD T46), Nestor Bolum (bantamweight) and Olufemi Ajayi (welterweight) in boxing, Segun Toriola (men’s single table tennis), Nigeria’s men’s table tennis team comprising of Toriola, Monday Merotohun and Kazeem Nasiru, and the women’s 4x400 meters relay quartet, comprising of Kudirat Akhigbe, Joy Eze, Folashade Abugan, Christiana Ekpukhon.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

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Fasugba claims silver in 100m,as Adesoji wins gold

Olusoji Fasugba ran a good race yesterday to win for Nigeria the silver medal in the prestigious 100 meters final of the Commonwealth Games.

Though he came second in qualifying from the semi-final, not a lot of people gave the unsung Nigerian, hope for a medal but a startling start put Fasugba among the front runners at the 50-meter mark and he chased world record holder, Asafa Powell to the finish line.

Powell won the race in 10.03 seconds while Fasugba came behind in 10.11.

More fancied Uchenna Emedolu, the other Nigerian in the 100 meters men’s final, finished fourth in 10.22 seconds.

Emedolu had come in second in the first semi final race in 10.21 seconds a couple of hours earlier. Fasugba also finished second in the second semi final with top favourite, Powell, also beating him then with his 10.03seconds.

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THIS AND THE PREVIOUS REPORTS HAVE BEEN PULLED FROM SIX OR SO NEWSPAPERS IN NIGERIA. LOOKS LIKE IT’S ALL FUN & GAMES THERE. ANYONE WHO COULD SUCCEED OUT OF SUCH AN ENVIRONMENT WOULD BE MAKING IT DESPITE RATHER THAN BECAUSE OF THE LOCAL SITUATION.kk

Edo relocates athletes
• Monday, Apr 17, 2006
The violence that has characterised the 2006 National Sports Festival tagged “Gateway Games” Thursday forced Edo State to contemplate withdrawing their athletes from the Games.

Anselm Edjozie, Commissioner for Sports told The Tidesports source Thursday, that they have relocated their athletes from their camp site near Ijebu-ode saying that, those at Abeokuta will be relocated if the present violence targeted against Team Edo continues.

“Under the circumstances, therefore, we might be compelled to pull out of the Games completely”, the embittered chief priest in the temple of sports in Edo State threatened.

“We value the lives and safety of our athletes than the festival gold,” Edjozie added.

The commissioner’s explosion of bottled anger was precipitated by the violence that marred the special sports tennis event between Edo and Ogun, Thursday, at Gateway International Stadium, Abeokuta.

Edo state won the first set and were top during the second set when some hoodlums disrupted the game.

In the ensuing fracas, an Edo state athlete was injured in the head.

Brown Ebewele, Director of sports in Edo State, who drove in at the time had his car vandalised.

The violence spread to the power lifting event between Imo and FCT.

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Flops and failures are their two favourite words… Now you see why athletes NEVER trust NGR newspapers :smiley: Nevertheless the truth is sometimes even worse…

As for Francis the biography doesn’t tell that he moved to Madrid and changed training group after 2003 World Champs. His coach forced him to focus on 100m in 2004 and it turned out she was right, 9.86 and silver in Athens! In 2005 he had knee and foot injuries (among other old things) so maybe he will take the 2006 season off. There were talks about moving to 400m but it’s not true, a journalist mis-interpreted what the coach said… (surprisingly, the journalist wasn’t from NGR :rolleyes: )

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A few years ago when we were watching him race at Bislett, John Smith said that Francis was “the” guy he would love to coach and I’m pretty sure he was thinking 400m.

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Francis is surely a fantastic athlete to coach but a nightmare for the doctors with the long injury history. Actually, the stroy started like this : the coach said Francis has a 400m morphology, and the journalist thought, ok, he’s moving to 400m.

Francis ran an individual 400m in 1998 in 46.29 on 3 June. On 31 May, he did 10.03w and 20.50, on 6 June, he did 10.12w and 20.42w. So he wasn’t in his best shape obviously.

He also ran it in relay last year but according to the coach, his split is not even worth mention, something like 47.

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So then he’s simply a tall sprinter of 100 and 200. Nothing wrong with that. But sometimes I wonder, especially when I think of him, when we may see another “complete” sprinter like Tommie Smith.

PJ, if you have stats for :cool: The Jet it may be an eye-opener for some of the younger generation at CF.com.

I’m sure it was only newspaper talk at the time, but it seemed that around 1967 he could have beaten anyone at 100, 200 & 400 “on his day”.?

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Tommie “Jet” Smith
born 12 Feb 1944

100y 9.3 in Provo in 6 May 1967
100m 10.1 in San Jose on 21 May 1966
200m 19.83A in Mexico on 16 Oct 1968
220y straight 19.5 in San Jose on 7 May 1966 (first ever legal sub20sec).
220y relay leg 19.4 in San Jose on 13 May 1967 (worth 19.3 at 200m)
400m 45.25 in London on 20 Aug 1966
440y 44.8 (official split 44.5 at 400m) in San Jose on 20 May 1966
400m relay leg 43.8 on 24 Jul 66 (first ever sub44.
LJ 7.90m

Best 200m list

19.83A (0.9) 1 Mexico’68 (OG)
20.14A (0.9) 1 Provo’67 (NCAA)(20.26 at 220y)
20.14A (0.6) 1sf Mexico’68 (OG)
20.18A (1.9) 2 Echo Summit’68 (FOT)
20.28A (0.0) 1qf Mexico’68 (OG)
20.37A (0.5) 1h Mexico’68 (OG)
20.38A (-0.7) 1sf Echo Summit’68 (FOT)
20.77A (0.3) 2h Echo Summit’68 (FOT)
20.81 (0.0) 1sf Barkersfield’67 (AAU)(20.93 at 220y)
20.84 (legit) 1 London’68
windy:
20.21A (2.4) 1qf Echo Summit’68 (FOT)
He ran also 8 manual 20.2 times or better + 6 wind-assisted (best 19.9 in Sacramento on 11 Jun 1966).
He had a leg injury in Mexico that prevent him to run the bend at full speed, but , even though he opened his arms at 15m to go, his split times were 10.52+9.31 (according to Robert Parienté), only MJ has finished faster in Atlanta (9.20).

Roberto Quercetani published a “World History of The One-Lap Race”, a MUST READ, and there are details about The Jet at 400m:
For the 400m 44.5 / 440y 44.8 double WR, the splits were:
110y 11.0, 220y 21.7, 330y 33.5, 440y 44.8. Timers clocked officially the 400m in 44.5. See how fast he ran the last straight, surely he could have been the first sub44sec runner if he had more tries at the event (Quercetani reports that Smith had a time trial over 352y (321.8m) in 34.5 few days before the double WR.

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The guy is a Legend. And he had a political conscience and the courage of his convictions (witness the Mexico medals ceremony)

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I was told that he ran a 352yard SE run in the 33s which should equal a 400m in the 43s. (the rule of thumb at the time was to take the 352Y time and add 10 sec for the 440y time)

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PJ-What do you know about his training? All I really heard from guys in his Portuguese Club (though only got to see him once) was that his coach didn’t really have a short-long or long-short philosophy as they knew it. He also apparently likes ice baths. Anymore info?

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FROM :cool: SOMEONE WHO WAS THERE:

That Guy could run a bit couldn’t he. It would have taken a pretty good
sort of an athlete to even get within say .23 sec of him on any given day
even if he did have a sore leg that stopped him from doing his best on the
curve.

I should confess that I lent him a helping hand in two of those runs, the
first ever sub 3 min 4x400 relay when he ran the 43.8 on July 24 1966.

That was when one Gary Eddy wouldn’t run the 4x400 and I got the 3rd leg
against a guy who was “only” a 200 runner and I pushed him all the way
(from about 40m behind) I must have really worried him that day, and of
course his 19.83 200m on Oct 16 / 1968, that one is well documented.

I wonder how he would have fared in a certain “Small Country Town Picnic
Handicap” race held around Easter each year.

Cheers & Beers
Peter

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His coach doesn’t know the S-L or L-S approaches. Didn’t red CFTS obviously. But he does short sprints all year round, and all kind of distances up to 600m in GPP. Uses jumps, weights, but injury history surely is a nightmare for the coaches. But Francis is one of the few athletes in the circuit who is appreciated by everybody.

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1968: Black athletes make silent protest
Two black American athletes have made history at the Mexico Olympics by staging a silent protest against racial discrimination.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medallists in the 200m, stood with their heads bowed and a black-gloved hand raised as the American National Anthem played during the victory ceremony.

The pair both wore black socks and no shoes and Smith wore a black scarf around his neck. They were demonstrating against continuing racial discrimination of black people in the United States.

As they left the podium at the end of the ceremony they were booed by many in the crowd.

‘Black America will understand’

At a press conference after the event Tommie Smith, who holds seven world records, said: "If I win I am an American, not a black American. But if I did something bad then they would say ‘a Negro’. We are black and we are proud of being black.

“Black America will understand what we did tonight.”

Smith said he had raised his right fist to represent black power in America, while Carlos raised his left fist to represent black unity. Together they formed an arch of unity and power.

He said the black scarf represented black pride and the black socks with no shoes stood for black poverty in racist America.

Within a couple of hours the actions of the two Americans were being condemned by the International Olympic Committee.

A spokesperson for the organisation said it was “a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit.”

It is widely expected the two will be expelled from the Olympic village and sent back to the US.

In September last year Tommie Smith, a student at San Jose State university in California, told reporters that black members of the American Olympic team were considering a total boycott of the 1968 games.

‘Dirty negro’

He said: “It is very discouraging to be in a team with white athletes. On the track you are Tommie Smith, the fastest man in the world, but once you are in the dressing rooms you are nothing more than a dirty Negro.”

The boycott had been the idea of professor of sociology at San Jose State university, and friend of Tommie Smith, Harry Edwards.

Professor Edwards set up the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) and appealed to all black American athletes to boycott the games to demonstrate to the world that the civil rights movement in the US had not gone far enough.

He told black Americans they should refuse “to be utilised as ‘performing animals’ in the games.”

Although the boycott never materialised the OPHR gained much support from black athletes around the world.

In Context
That evening, the silver medallist in the 200m event, :cool: Peter Norman of Australia, who was white, wore an OPHR badge in support of Smith and Carlos’ protest.
But two days later the two athletes were suspended from their national team, expelled from the Olympic village and sent home to America.

Many felt they had violated the Olympic spirit by drawing politics into the games.

On their return both men were welcomed as heroes by the African-American community but others regarded them as trouble-makers. Both received death threats.

Thirty years after their protest, the two men, who went on to become high school athletics coaches, were honoured for their part in furthering the civil rights movement in America.

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noticed that 19 year old female sprinter Jane Dike is one of the nigerian athletes seeking to remain in australia and ran at stawell last weekend… and on the Central Coast of NSW yesterday.

performances and standards unkown… PJ can you shed any light.

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Friday 21st, April, 2006 HOME | Previous Page

Can Emedolu Match Words With Action ?

By Ejiro Femi-Babafemi

Lagos

By its dictionary definition citizenship is the relationship between a person and the country they live in, support, and in return receive protection from. A person is usually a citizen of the country they are born in, but in some situations can apply for a change of citizenship to another country.

In other words, a person is free to change citizenship for reasons that suit him. Furthermore reasons abound why a person may decide to switch his nationality. But in most cases one dominant reason has actually been the search for the Golden Fleece.

Therefore when a fortnight ago, the news filtered into the various media houses that Uchenna Emedolu was on the verge of dumping Nigeria for the green and gold colours of Australia, it did not elicit any surprise. It was so because like others before him, the reason for dumping the green and white colours was not far fetched. The quest to enhance their careers in a better environment rather than rot away in a country that never seems to value their worth appeared to be the motive.

Emedolu had just represented Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia last month. In fact, it was further reported that the Australian Immigrations department was currently processing his papers.

Consequently Emedolu could not have been faulted for joining the bandwagon, considering the fact that Nigerian athletes had become frustrated with the system.

But only last weekend while addressing journalists shortly after winning the gold medal for Abia State in the 100m event at the 15th edition of the National Sports Festival in Ogun State, which incidentally ended yesterday, Emedolu refuted the report alleging it was the figment of people’s imagination.

“It is a lie, and where the story emanated from or whoever had said it does know me,” he added.

For Emedolu, who four years ago won the silver medal at the Commonwealth Games in Manchester, such thoughts had been consigned to the dustbin given the love he now has for his land of birth. But despite his renewed love Emedolu does not still blame his colleagues for ditching the country for greener pastures. “I am happy with Nigeria, the only thing is that the country you tend to love does not recognise those that suffer to build its image in sports and that is the only reason why some athletes ditch Nigeria,” he continued. The IAAF World Cup winner noted that his involvement in sports was to lift the image of the country and with it project the people of Nigeria in a positive light especially as other countries have refused to see anything good in the country. “So seeing us compete at the highest level makes them have respect for the black man,” he said.

Since it would be difficult reading Emedolu’s mind to ascertain the veracity of his claims, his defence however suggests that he is not prepared to go the way of his colleagues notwithstanding the pressure he may be passing through presently to dump Nigeria. In addition the attitude of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Sports Ministry towards preparing athletes for international competitions over the years is enough reason for the former footballer to shift base. For the records it is no hidden fact that AFN have always been lukewarm anytime they have the opportunity of assembling athletes for major championships.

But reading through the line from the above, age maybe Emedolu’s reason for his latest stance. But that is not to say the issue is history. Like the popular phrase says, “There is no smoke without fire”, one cannot really swallow hook line and sinker, Emedolu’s statement simply for his love for Nigeria. All that can be done is to watch in the coming days whether circumstances can persuade him to change his mind.

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Jane will turn 20 on 4 August.
Her PBs are: 11.65 (4th at the National Trials in February 2006) and 24.21 in 2005 (24.25 for 2nd place at Trials this year).

As for Uche Emedolu i don’t know what’s right or wrong but in Melbourne he never talked to anybody about moving to Australia. Wife and childs are in NGR…

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11.65 into a 24.21 work that out…