The last time Nigeria made it to the podium was six years ago in Valencia,Spain where sprinter Olusoji Fasuba made history not only as the second Nigerian to be crowned IAAF
World Indoor champions but also the first African to win the 60m title at the global event.
Fasuba's feat had been preceded by a strings of failure that followed the double silver-medal performances in 1999 in Maebashi,Japan by the duo of Glory Alozie (60m hurdles) and Falilat Ogunkoya (400m).
Interestingly,Nigeria's best ever performance was recorded two years before the double silver in Maebashi.It was at the championships' 6th edition in Paris,France where Sunday Olanrewaju Bada (now late) made history as the first Nigerian to win an IAAF World Indoor title,Chioma Ajunwa won a first ever medal by a Nigerian woman at the event and the duo of Francis Obikwelu and Davidson Ezinwa also won a pair of bronze medals in the 200m and 60m respectively.Ajunwa and Endurance Ojokolo also made it to the finals of the 60m.
Today,CT&FM takes a look at the Team Nigeria athletes who went,saw but could not conquer at the Ergo Arena in Sopot,Poland where the Championships took from Friday March 7 to Sunday March 9,2014.
GLORIA ASUMNU:
Reigning African 200m queen,Asumnu was Nigeria's top performer in Sopot after making the 60m final for the second consecutive edition.The USA-based sprinter ran all the way to the final,placing sixth () in her debut appearance at the championships two years ago in Istanbul,Turkey.
In Sopot Asumnu ran personal season's best twice but it was not enough to get her to the podium.In the first round she ran 7.19 seconds to secure a place in the semifinals while in the semis she improved to 7.11 to get a lane in the final where she finished seventh (7.18),a step lower than her sixth place finish two years earlier in Istanbul.
REGINA GEORGE:
Like the one athlete nation Nigeria seems to have become at global competition,Olympic and World 400m semifinalist,Regina carried the country's only hope for a place at the podium in Sopot.Touted as the perfect replacement for Falilat Ogunkoya,Regina served notice of a possible podium appearance in Sopot when on February 25 at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow she ran a then 51.78 personal season's best to move to number six on the world list.
Then in Sopot she opened her campaign with another impressive,personal-season's best setting 51.60 seconds run.With her performance,nobody was ready to bet against her becoming the second Nigerian woman to mount the podium in the event after Falilat Ogunkoya did in Maebashi,Japan in 1999.
For some inexplicable reason(s),although the Athletic Federation of Nigeria claimed she had cramps,she failed to come out for the semifinals,leaving many to wonder what might have happened had she competed in the race and the final.
STEPHEN MOZIA:
Much was expected from the Cornell University,USA junior student who got the clearance to compete for Nigeria barely a week to the start of the championships.Mozia had once competed for the USA,precisely at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Barcelona,Spain in 2012,a condition that made his switch of allegiance to Nigeria a bit difficult albeit he also holds a Nigerian passport.The IAAF rules say he either waits for three years without competing for the USA before his change of allegiance can take effect or have the two federations involved in the matter (the Athletic Federation of Nigeria,AFN,and the United States Track and Field Association,USTAF) agree on the switch.
Since Mozia publicly announced his decision to compete for Nigeria,USTAF had no choice but to release him.
Prior to the championships Mozia had been phenomenal in the American collegiate circuit,setting personal bests and records after records with the final one,a 20.79m coming a week to the Sopot event.
Naturally,all eyes were on the 20-year old Nigerian to at least make it to the final.
Nathan Taylor,the head coach at Cornell University told Complete Sports Mozia would not be frightened by the big stage Sopot represented.
'Stephen is a terrific competitor,a phenomenal youngman who is ready to take on the world.I don't think he would be scared of the big names in Sopot',Taylor told CT&FM on the eve of the championships,adding that Mozia is not only a terrific athlete but also a brilliant student.
'He is a very brilliant young man,one of the top five engineering students in the USA."
In Sopot Mozia failed to fulfil expectations as he crashed out in the first round with a rather pedestrian put of 18.91m achieved with his second effort after fouling the first,and later thethird attempt.
MEN'S 4X400M:
Expectedly,the men's 1600 relay team of Tobi Ogunmola,Noah Akwu,Salihu Isa and Cris Amaechi Morton failed to make it to the final in an event only 10 countries participated in. A rarely run event by African nations,Sopot was the second time since the relays were introduced to the championships in 1993 that Nigeria sent a team.Apart from Nigeria who have now competed twice (2001 and 2014),only Botswana have also flown Africa's flag,first in 2010 in Doha where the team was disqualified and later in Istanbul,Turkey.
In Sopot the Nigerian team set a 3:07.95 African indoor record in the semifinals,an improvement on the 3:09.76 mark set by the team that went to Lisbon in 2001.The mark was however not enough to secure a place in the final.
WOMEN'S 4X400M:
With Regina George out of the picture,the women's team was not expected to ruffle any feathers.Nigeria competed for the first time in the event to make history as the first African nation to run in the women's 4x400m event at the championships.Expectedly,the quartet Omolara Omotoso,Patience Okon George,Bukola Abogunloko and Folasade Abugan ran an African record time of 3:29.67 to qualify for the final.
60m Result
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce JAM 6.98
Murielle Ahouré CIV 7.01
Tianna Bartoletta USA 7.06
Asha Philip GBR 7.11
Veronica Campbell-Brown JAM 7.13
Michelle-Lee Ahye TTO 7.16
Gloria Asumnu NGR 7.18
Verena Sailer GER 7.18
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