Francis “Boss” Obikwelu : A long road and succession of miracles, from Nigeria to Portugal, from cement to 9.86.
Story first published http://www.european-athletics.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3847&Itemid=78
By Phil Minshull
Obikwelu wants double glory in Gothenburg
27 July 2006
Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu is going to the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, next month knowing exactly what he wants to do.
"I have to defend my 100m title at the European Athletics Championships, that’s always been my main goal for the season and I want to win the 200m as well. But it’s a tough schedule; I’ve got eight races in four days.
"Of course I’m the favourite, I know that but I’m not arrogant about it. Other people can always come through so I’m going to Gothenburg well prepared. I’m going to be strong there, I don’t want to be under pressure so I just want to go there and be able to do my thing, and in a major championship I pretty much always run better than in the usual Grand Prix meets.
“If the Lord keeps me fit, I’d like to keep running until at least the next European Athletics Championships in 2010, hopefully defending the titles I want to win in Gothenburg,” said Obikwelu, talking at his Spanish training base in Madrid ahead of his outing at the Norwich Union London Grand Prix on Friday 28 July.
Obikwelu leads this season’s European 100m rankings with the 10.03 seconds he clocked in Athens earlier this month but in a year when Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell have equalled the world record, the European record holder at 9.86 seconds, set when he finished second at the 2004 Olympic Games, has almost become the forgotten sprinter.
“But I’m almost waiting to get the European Championships out of the way before challenging the guys from the rest of the world. I have not been running too many races, because I have a championship to contest, they don’t,” added Obikwelu.
Lucky break in Lisbon
However, but for a few lucky breaks, Obikwelu might never have made the grade in the senior ranks and the Nigerian-born athlete knows that he has had a bit of good fortune in his life.
"I went to Lisbon for the World Junior Championships in 1994 where I ran the 400m for Nigeria (where he made the semi-finals as a 15-year-old). After the race I decided not to go back, I basically defected with some other friends on the team. We stayed and tried to make a living. It was tough, very shocking, because I couldn’t understand the language and what people were saying. I had to stop running because I had to eat and I ended up working in construction for 18 months, I was moving cement and logs around.
"I couldn’t move to any other country because I didn’t have any documents, I was scared, I didn’t want to get caught by the police and sent back home. I had to hide myself and I had no option but to stay in Portugal.
"Getting back into athletics a little later was a kind of a miracle. I can say that in all sincerity, a miracle. I decided to go back into school to learn the Portuguese language, I knew that was going to help me and at the school I met a lady from Britain, her name’s Miriam Morgan. I told her about myself, I was working during the day and studying at night; but sometimes I played football and rugby with her son. He said ‘Hey, you’re fast.’
"I explained to him that I used to run but that I had to stop because I had to work. Nobody knew me so he spoke to his mum and she in turn called a big club in Portugal, Beleneses. One of the coaches there remembered me from the World Juniors, he knew I was a talented guy.
Fast progress and plans
“It was an accident that I ended up as an international 100m and 200m runner because my first coach in Portugal said: ‘You’re pretty fast, try the 100m and 200m.’”
Obikwelu quickly adapted to his new events and patched up relations with the Nigerian federation so that they selected him for the 1996 Olympics and the World Junior Championships in Sydney the same year, where he notched up a double victory in the two sprints, and gave the first hint of his future plans when he told reporters that he hoped to represent Portugal at the 2000 Olympics.
The Portuguese authorities, unlike Francis and his ambitions, weren’t quite so fast and he returned to the Australian city four years later still in a Nigeria vest but in October 2001 he finally received his Portuguese citizenship.
"One of the things that I liked immediately about Portugal was that I saw a lot of black people on the streets. I thought it was just like home but it shows how much I knew about the world then, back in 1994, because I didn’t realise they didn’t speak English!
“But I can say that because of the way things are in Portugal, with many people from Angola and Mozambique there, I have never suffered any form of discrimination. It might have been different if I had chosen to stay another country even though, at that point, I had not been to another European country. Things were tough at first but in that respect I can say I was lucky,” reflected Obikwelu.
“But I still go back to Nigeria, usually twice a year, as all the rest of my family is there. I have three brothers and two sisters. I try to get back there at the end of the season and then around Christmas. They still love me even though I am now a Portuguese citizen and that’s wonderful.”