Reactions have continued to trickle in following team Nigeria’s abysmal performance at the just concluded IAAF World Championships in Beijing.
According to Toni Urhobo, a renowned athletics coach, Nigeria’s hope of a medal vanished after Blessing Okagbare, the country’s biggest hope failed to keep up with the pressure.
Amid reports that Okagbare failed to appear for the 200M heat due to an injury she sustained in the 100M finals, Urhobo believes that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN)’s claim of injury to the sprint queen was deceptive, Vanguard reports.
According to him, Okagbare bowed to pressure of competing at the big stage with the big girls of world athletics.
Blessing Okagbare
He said: “It wasn’t injury that made Okagbare crash out. She cracked under pressure.
“Running in the grand prix is totally different from competing in the world championships or Olympics. The grand prix where she has been making good times is a one day event, unlike the worlds championships; they are gruesome and you have to go through the rounds, you need a special kind of training to be able to cope with the pressure.
“If she was injured, why were the members of the women 4x100m expecting her to compete until the very morning of their heats? Urhobo quarried.
“We are waiting to see whether she will compete at the All Africa Games. That’s where she feels more comfortable, whereas other African big acts don’t come there with their stars; they rather use the Games as a launching pad.”
Urhobo added that coaches were at Beijing 2015 have no credential and technical ability to uplift the team.
“Our coaches were not up to it in Beijing. The federation does not want to go for quality; we have capable hands like me who are ready assist at a price. But they still prefer to beat around the bush.
“Look at the women 4x400m. They did their best in the heats only to fade out in the final; it boils down to coaching.”
Okagbare’s team had earlier attributed blamed her poor performance in the 100m race as a result of her placing on the starters’ draw, where she started on lane nine despite the fact that she ended the semis as the second fastest athlete.
This comes just before the AFN attributed her poor performance to injury.
Despite running one of the fastest times in the season, Okagbare failed to measure up in the women 100m as she placed 8th in the race won by Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce of Jamaica.