Nigeria: AFN Golden League Final Holds June 15 in Warri

7 June 2011

With the final leg of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria Golden League scheduled for June 15 in the oil-rich city of Warri, the battle for those to share in the N2m jackpot prize has been narrowed down to just four athletes.

The Lagos Leg of the League, which held during the weekend at the Sports Complex of the Yaba College of Technology, top contender, Ogho Oghene Egwero dropped out of the race in preference of a career-boosting meet in Rabat, Morocco.

Left in the leg were Shola Anota Long Jump, Baba Ibrahim Hammer, Justin Agu 800m and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps’ 4x100m women relay team in the race for the jackpot.

They all won their fourth legs respectively.

The high point of the Lagos leg was the 10.27 posted by come-backing Obinna Metu in the semi final. In the absence of Egwero who maintained a strong grip on the earlier three legs, Metu was easily the unassailable star of the field that included three Delta athletes Elvis Ukale (10.45), Nat Oletu (10.48) and Peter Unegbu (10.67).

Agnes Osazuwa who won the women version of the sprint in Abuja a fortnight earlier also picked her second title in the league with an 11.50. Deborah Odeyemi (11.76) was second while Margaret Benson won the bronze with 11.87.

None of the men quarter-miler was anywhere near the high 45sec three runners ran in the Abuja leg. The best of the weekend was a dismal 46.24 posted by Godday James.

Technical/Performance Director of the AFN Sunday Bada attributed the slow times posted in the Lagos leg to the two weeks break from the last leg.

“Without making cases for some of the poor times recorded here, I think the break between Abuja and Lagos did not help the athletes. Once the league begins, you don’t create room for slacking. But the inauguration weekend, which caused a shift to this weekend, made many to relax their training regimes, thereby slowing down the tempo with which we were expecting them to carry on. You can see Egwero for instance started the League in Port Harcourt with a 10.5 when down to 10.33 and then 10.26. That is the trend we expected before the break,” observed the Sydney Olympics 4x400m gold medalist.

Bada defended the absence of Egwero here at this fourth leg, insisting that the Meet in Rabat, Morocco was a better exposure and career boosting for the Delta athlete. “After winning all the first three legs, there is no competition for Egwero on the local scene here than to try his luck with the big boys at the Morocco Meet. Of course, the prospect of doing better at the All Africa Games far outweigh whatever monetary gains he would have made having a share in the League jackpot prize,” concludes the serving police office.

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