Former international sprinter, Endurance Ojokolo, is surethat the country’s women sprinters will win gold medals at the ongoing 13th African Games in Ghana.
The athletics event will begin on Monday and Ojokolo said she is confident Nigerian sprinters would regain their stranglehold on the continent’s track and field.
Since 2015, no Nigerian woman has made the podium in the 100m of the African Games. Ojokolo, who is a 2004 African Championships gold medalist and 2003 African Games 4x100m gold winner, said Nigerian women are back in the mix of top African sprints.
She hinted that when the 100m events unfold at the University of Ghana Stadium in East Legon, the likes of Olajide Olayinka, Blessing Ogundiran and Justina Tiana Eyakpobeyan would stand up to be counted.
Olayinka with 11.19 seconds has the third-best world performance so far this season. If she can reproduce or improve on the form she displayed at the AFN National Trials last month, she could strike gold in Ghana.
Since 2015, Cote d’Ivoire’s Marie Jose Talou has dominated the women’s 100m. It is not yet clear if she will be running in this year’s African Games in Ghana. She and Gambia’s Gina Bass took their turns to win the women’s 200m in 2015 and 2019.
“Our sprinters are fit and ready for the Games; they are looking forward to racing the best there is,” Ojokolo said. “They are motivated and have the right frame of mind to compete. There’s Olayinka, Ogundiran and Tiana, who have done well and are keen to reproduce their best.”
Meanwhile, one of the sprinters,Eyakopobeyan, has declared that “it has to be the gold medal or nothing.” For the male sprinters, Ojokolo is optimistic that Nigeria can also make impact in the 100m with ItseoritsheItsekiri, Seye Ogunlewe and Alaba Akintola expected to join Consider Ekanem, who is already on ground waiting to have the first feel of his international competition.
