Long jump bronze medallist in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China, Blessing has said she is full of high hopes for this season. She said she is not full of expectations because it’s an Olympic year but because the year is important to her career. Last year was a difficult one for the athlete as she was down with injury which dampened her expectations. She said:”Last season I wasn’t expecting so much. I had my surgery and also made the transition from the collegiate season to the professional circuit. I wasn’t expecting too much.”

The surgery was to repair a stress fracture to the tibia which meant a winter of rehabilitation rather than that of hard training that sets an athlete up for the summer season. On her training at the moment Okagbare said it is going on smoothly: “It’s going well. Infact, pretty decent really. Right now I’m doing long runs, power lifting and technical work.”

Last season was not a complete write-off as she performed creditably in the 100m in the World Championships in Daegu, finishing fifth. But says: “I was really trying to get myself back into shape. I wasn’t going to go super fast.” She followed that up with long jump gold and 100m silver at the 2011 All-African Games in Maputo. The gold medal in the AAG and the Olympic bronze she won in Beijing could have meant long jump is her specialty and her manager Paul Doyle believes she could become the best in the world if she concentrates on the jump even though she doesn’t see that as her focus in an Olympic year. “I’m enjoying sprinting right now, but it can be a combination of both.”

Okagbare has qualified for all three events in London although the timetable suggests she make a choice between the 200m and long jump. “I’ve had three coaches in four years. There’ve been a few changes in my life but I’ve been able to deal with it. John Smith is a very good coach. I’m not saying other coaches I’ve worked with are not good but I really think we can work together as coach and athlete. I want to get better, that’s my goal. When I went down to see what he does I was pleased with what I saw. I’m aiming really high. I wasn’t sure about getting to the final of the world championship but I did and that was a huge one for me. I know it’s going to be hard and tough. I’m here to push for the top three. If I get it that’s it, if I don’t there’s 2016.”

On the pressure from Nigeria to perform in the Olympics, she said: “When I went to the first Olympics I was young and a bit naïve. It was when I went out for qualifying and got to the final (that it hit home). It’s different, yet similar to the World Championship but different to a Commonwealth or African Championship. It’s a world event and you’re competing with the best people in the world, but it does differ for individuals.”

The United Kingdom (UK) has announced that it would start the processing of visitors visas for people coming from outside the country to watch the Olympic and Paralympic games from January 1 2012.
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The Games, according to a statement made available to LEADERSHIP SPORTS by the British High Commission in Abuja, will be the biggest event that the UK will be hosting, adding that many extra visitors will arrive during the busy summer period in 2012.
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We will process your application and, if you meet the requirements, will issue your visa with a start date that will cover you for the whole Olympic and Paralympic Games period.
“This means that you can start your preparations for travelling to the UK for the Games from the beginning of 2012,”it added.
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The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has inaugurated a 17-man committee to review its planned proposal to host the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. The advisory committee is also to advise if the games could be hosted without much cost to the government. The committee is chaired by FCT permanent secretary, Dr Nathaniel Olurefemi.
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Inaugurating the committee, minister of State, FCT, Mrs Olajumoke Akinjide said the FCT administration’s desire to host the multi-youth sporting events is hinged on the socio-economic values derivable from hosting such championship and urged the committee to ensure the dream is actualized.
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In her speech, secretary, FCT Social Development, Blessing Onuh, said the inauguration of the committee clearly demonstrated the readiness of the FCT administration to stage the Games in 2018 and ensure a workable document that will serve the collective interest of Nigerians within and outside the FCT. She said the proposal for the bid by FCT sports department and which will be reviewed by committee, was developed through extensive research and consultations.
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According to her, the bid document proposal outlines detailed work plan on proposed facilities, venues, accommodation, security and importantly sources of funding, budget expenditure and cost benefits.
She said the bid proposal also contains projected social, economic, environmental, infrastructural benefits as well as sports legacies that will be left on Abuja and Nigeria in general.
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In well over 100 years, there have been only 25 men who have tasted the Olympian heights and laid claim to the title “Fastest Man on Earth”. It is elite and also an eclectic club. The stories of these fast men are an extraordinary blend of success and disaster, as well as glory and tragedy; ranging from amazing wealth to grinding poverty; superstar adulation and national hero status to bankruptcy, shame, prison, even suicide.

As a compelling human interest story, it’s been an extraordinary rolling soap opera. And it doesn’t look like stopping any time soon. With arguably the sport’s greatest ever sprinter Usain Bolt on a one-man mission to rewrite the history books, it looks likely the fastest men that follow him will need to be even more extraordinary. But what about these future fast men? Who will they be and just how fast could they go? And is it now a cast-iron fact, at least at the elite level, that white men can’t sprint? These are perennial questions for fans of track and field, and the source of endless study and debate among scientists all over the world.

Scientific experiments on the world’s fastest men are nothing new. After the Berlin Olympics of 1936 and the Nazi sneers about “black auxiliaries” running for the United States, Jesse Owens agreed to take part in a revealing study. It had been dismissively suggested that the real reason for his Olympic triumph was that he possessed longer tendons in his feet, a physiological advantage, so scientists of the day surmised, of black athletes. However, when the study results were published, it was discovered that Owens had, in fact, shorter tendons than all the other sprinters at the Games.

But isn’t it demonstratively clear that black athletes are fundamentally better equipped to run faster than their white counterparts? After all, the last white Olympic 100m champion was Allan Wells in 1980. In fact, Moscow was the last time any white man lined up for the Olympic 100m final, and that was more than 30 years ago. The debate can cause a good deal of political and cultural friction, and the scientists themselves have been accused of closet racism for suggesting natural differences may exist between the races.

A fascinating study of the subject was made by think-tank scholar and journalist Jon Entine in his 1999 book theatrically entitled Taboo: ‘Why Black Athletes Dominate Sports and Why We Are Afraid to Talk About It.’ Entine’s theory about sprinting is that not all black athletes have a natural advantage, rather just a subset who can trace their ancestry back to West Africa.

Just as East Africans appear to have a natural ability for distance running, he says, the West African athletes and their descendants appear to have more successes in sprinting. He correctly claimed – back then – that no white, Asian or East African athlete had ever broken 10 seconds in the 100m, in which case it is just possible his theory has some substance rather than being a sweeping generalisation.

Research published in the early 1970s suggested that black sprinters had six major differences from their white counterparts: less body fat, shorter torsos, thinner hips, longer legs, thicker thigh muscles and thinner calf muscles. But, in terms of running fast, there was also another, critical difference: a higher percentage of what physiologists call fast-twitch fibres. The motion of the average human is geared by a largely even balance of slow-and fast-twitch muscle fibres, but research shows that just as marathon runners have an imbalance – sometimes as much as 80% slow-twitch fibres – so too do sprinters. The top sprinters have 80% fast-twitch fibres, and these allow them to be far more explosive and faster in short bursts.

Given this intriguing physiological information and despite the young Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre becoming the first white man to break the 10-second barrier in July 2010, it’s hard to imagine a white sprinter climbing on top of the Olympic 100m podium ever again.

The talented and long-legged Lemaitre has since lowered his personal best to 9.92, but it’s not false modesty when he admits he is simply running for a place in the 2012 Olympic final.

His current best would have given him equal fifth place in Beijing, and the widely held view is that on current form he will need to find at least another couple of tenths to trouble the podium in London. But Lemaitre is a significant exception to the rule of what makes the perfect fast man, and that leads us on to the next question. What are the common characteristics in the world’s fastest men and is there a human speed limit?

As to how far Usain Bolt can go, Pfaff has an interesting coaching perspective. “Bolt is so far ahead of the field that he can be joyful, playful and relaxed. It would be interesting if two or three people could challenge him. He doesn’t lose a lot of sleep over what happens in the first 10, 20 or 30 metres. But at 50m he knows what he has to do. When he gets to 50m there’s not usually a lot of traffic around him, so it would be interesting to see if he got to 50m, 70m, even 80m and three guys were still with him. Would he run a crazy time or would he fold?

So at the Olympic Games of 2036 – 100 years after Jesse Owens – we could be witnessing some extraordinary times if the scientists get their way. It may sound like a bad plot for a kids’ cartoon but if the history of the fastest men on earth has taught us anything, then it’s always to expect the unexpected.

Source from www.guardian.co.uk

Nigerian sprinter and former Olympic Silver medallist, Sunday Bada is dead.

Bada, who was the current technical director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), is reported to have slumped and died at the National Stadium, Lagos Monday evening, December 12, 2011.

The 41-year-old is fondly remembered for his brave feat as part of the Nigerian team that won the silver medal in 4 x 400 metres relay at the 2000 Olympics held in Sydney, Australia setting a national record of 2:58.68 minutes in that race.

Bada won three medals at World Indoor Championships, including a gold medal in 1997. He also won silver medals at the 1993 (Toronto) and 1995 (Barcelona) competitions.

The president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Chief Solomon Ogba, has charged the leadership of the National Assembly to pay more attention to the development of sports, owing to its potential to improve the image of the country.

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Ogba, who stated this during a press conference to unveil AFN program and events for 2012, insisted that if emphasis is placed on sports, the lost glory and respect which the country earned from other countries in the past would be restored.

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The AFN boss wants special attention to be paid on track and field events because that is an aspect where the country has made its mark in the past, stressing that the performance of a single athlete can put the country’s name back on the top. “If we believe that sports is what unites and binds us together, then we should do a lot to improve the sector.

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“The National Assembly should increase the budgetary allocation to sports. What they are giving to the sectors at moment is peanuts compared to what is given to other sector of the economy. It is only in sports you can see a Muslim join his Christian brother to sing a song without minding his or her religious affiliation. It is only in sports you see a Hausa man from the North dance and sing with a Yoruba man or Ijaw from the South without minding their background or tribal differences. If the government knows all this, how come they are playing with such critical sector of the society?.

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“Sports have what it takes to bring Nigeria’s name back on top. A single athlete can write Nigeria’s name in gold. So, government should put more money in sports and should be ready to ask questions on the money it spends,” he stated.

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According to him, it is time we regain our lost glory in sports and the only way to achieve this is through hard work, because champions and world class teams are not created over night’ explaining that it requires a lot of resources and application of resources.

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He expressed AFN’s commitment and determination to bring back Nigeria’s lost glory

Aiming to model AFN Golden League after IAAF Diamond league, Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has opened its door to corporate organisations for sponsorship. AFN president, Solomon Ogba stated this during an interactive session with sports writers in Abuja, said the federation is seeking for sponsorship for the ‘Golden League’ series competition billed to take place in Port Harcourt, Owerri or Enugu, Ado-Ekiti, Warri and Lagos in the first and second quarter of next year respectively.
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?He said the 2012 edition of AFN Golden League will be made robust with prizes of $10, 000 and $20, 000 for 100m and 200m winners respectively. “Next editions will be made robust. There will be a price tag of $10, 000 for 100m winners and $20, 000 for 200m. The prize for 100m and 200m race anywhere in the world is $10, 000 and $20, 000. We are putting the same money on our Golden League to attract the best athletes both home and abroad to come and participate to meet the glamour of the Golden League compared to anywhere in the world. Corporate bodies should come and invest their money in the league. They should invest in the league and we will organise a Golden League that will be highly rewarding to them and the athletes,” he said.
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The ‘Golden League’ is the only competition available to Nigerian athletes. Last year, the federation struggled to keep it afloat.

Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has earmarked the sum of three hundred and fifteen million naira (315m) for its programmes and activities next year. AFN president, Solomon Ogba, made this known yesterday at a press conference to unveil AFN’s calendar of events in the forthcoming year.?
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?According to him, the amount will take care of local and international programmes and events to be held in 2012. He appealed to the National Assembly to as a matter of importance appropriate the amount to enable them carryout the programmes earmarked for next year. “We need only N315m to executive our programmes and activities in 2012. We are appealing to the National Assembly to appropriate to us this money if they want us to deliver. If not, they should be ready to share in the failure if we do not get this money and fail,” he said.
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He said AFN will kick start the 2012 season after the registration of clubs and athletes with an international Glo Half Marathon in Abuja on February 4, 2012 and it will be followed by IAAF level 111 coaching course in Warri between February 17 and 18. He said the coaching course is open to only ex-Olympians and coaches who have trained and guided athletes to Olympic events.
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He stated that the 2012 London Olympic Games was put into consideration in drawing the AFN 2012 calendar of events in a bid to keep Nigerian athletes busy and in form before the Olympics. He said the current board of AFN under his leadership is committed to competing for the top prize at the international championship. “The new policy of AFN is to compete for laurels at international championships. We don’t want to be seen as participants in any championship. Any event that we cannot make the semi final, there is no point going for such an event. We want to keep our athletes in top form and in drawing our programmes and events for 2012, the London Olympics Games was put into consideration,” he said.?

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Former marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie has shoved aside retirement insisting that he is not going anywhere but targeting success at the 2012 Games in London.
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The 38-year-old Ethiopian dropped out of his second successive marathon in Berlin on Sunday and saw his record time broken by Kenyan Patrick Makau.
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But he told BBC that:”I don’t want to miss the Olympics. It is London and to win here is something very special. I want to go down in history.”
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As well as a brace of Olympic 10,000m gold medals, coming in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney four years later, Gebrselassie has won four World Championship 10,000m golds and four World Indoor Championship golds (three at 3000m, one at 1500m) and has nine marathon victories to his name?
during a glittering 20-year career. But he has been suffering from exercise-induced asthma which contributed to him dropping out the race in Berlin after 35km.?
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This followed his failure to finish the New York Marathon last year because of an inflamed knee, which resulted in him announcing his retirement – a decision he reversed just a few days later. “Sometimes when I look back I wonder if that was me or somebody else. I shouldn’t have announced like that. But New York was a hard one. I don’t remember any of that day. “When asked if he was considering retiring again soon, he replied: “I don’t agree with that. If they think Haile Gebrselassie is old now – not yet. I’m only 38. Last Sunday I tried my best but it didn’t work. Now I’m looking forward. I’m planning for the next marathon. I’m thinking about qualifying [for the 2012 Olympics].
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The qualification time has to be something special. We Ethiopians have to run at least 2:04 or 2:05, because only the top three go to London. Many of the Ethiopians have already run these times so I have to be careful if I want to be in London. That is why I ran fast in Berlin at the beginning of the race and, of course, I didn’t finish.”

Australian butterfly swimming champion Geoff Huegill for the first time revealed he abused recreational drugs.

Huegill on Saturday also admitted he had suicidal thoughts when he retired from swimming after the 2004 Athens Olympics.

It is well known that the swimming legend battled with binge drinking and junk food which saw him put on 45kg.

Although he suffered from depression, the admission of drug use was, however, likely to shock many.

Huegill, 32, detailed his brush with alcohol, drugs and debt collectors in his new book, “Be Your Best.’’

He said he made the admission in his new book because “sooner or later, the truth catches up with you’’ and he wanted others to learn from his mistakes.

“My life from about 2005 to 2007, I experimented with many different things. I guess that’s a story that’s in my past,’’ he told the Nine Network on Saturday.

“I remained trapped because I was so ineffective in my life outside the pool.

“The usual cycles kicked in again, plenty of alcohol and party drugs. I was arriving home from clubbing at 4a.m, the hour I used to be getting up and training. I now had debt collectors to deal with,’’ he said.

After 16 years of intense swimming, he said he had no idea of the real world.

“The swimming world, it’s a pretty sheltered world. I had to learn pretty fast what the real world was like,’’ he said.

He credits his wife Sara, whom he met in 2007, with turning his life around. He also thanks life coach Keith Saggers for his help.

Huegill returned to swimming in 2008 and won two gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India.

He is also an ambassador for the Black Dog Institutes’s Exercise Your Mood Campaign which promotes the benefits of exercise in tackling depression.

The top swimmer said television shows like Underbelly glamorised drug use.

“The glorification of shows like Underbelly only make it worse because the young kids of today think that’s a glamorous world or the real world that we live in when ultimately, it’s not,’’ he said.

Huehill is a multiple Olympic, World, Pan Pacific and Commonwealth Games medalist, and a previous world record holder in the 50m butterfly.
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Team Nigeria has increased her medals tally at the on-going 10th All Africa Games in Maputo, Mozambique by winning additional 7 gold, 4 silver and 7 bronze.?
Statement by NSC chief press secretary, Tony Ohaeri from Maputo, revealed that Nigeria contingent had three more gold from Athletics, one from Para-Athletics, two from Chess and one from Taekwondo at the close Thursday events.?
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The contingent also won two silver medals from athletics and para-Athletics respectively, while seven bronze medals came from athletics, para-Athletics, judo, taekwondo and ?eennis.
With latest development, Nigeria’s contingent now has a total of 83 medals made up of 25 gold, ?25 silver and 33 bronze medals. Nigeria still occupies the second position behind South Africa.
Meanwhile, Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Yusuf Suleiman while congratulating the athletes on their performance charged them to continue to keep the green-white-green flag flying at the Maputo Games.?

In spite of the world wide criticism of false start rule that disqualified the fastest man on earth from the 100m final race during last week’s World Athletics Championship in Daegu, South Korea, International Athletics Association Federation (IAAF) insist that the one-strike policy will remain. “No chance. Because he made a false start, we are not going to change the rule,” Lamine Diack, IAAF President stated.

The beauty of the 2011 edition of IAAF World Championship in Daegu, South Korea, was almost? overshadowed by the sensational banishment of the fastest man from the 100m race final. Though, Jamaica still went away with the gold medal of the event, the false start of the biggest name in track and field sparked row in athletics family.
Bolt had barely left the track after his astonishing false start in the world championships 100m final before a debate swirled over the controversial rule. A packed stadium was stunned into silence in the seconds after the preening sprint star shot too early from his blocks on August 28. Distraught, he tore off his shirt and held his head in disbelief.

There were however some cherering news from the 2011 IAAF championship as Usain Bolt swept away the remaining clouds surrounding his 100-metre disqualification when he anchored Jamaica to a world record time of 37.04 seconds to retain the 4×100 metres relay title on the closing day of the IAAF world track and field championships.
“I kept on looking at the clock and I kept on saying, ‘I can do this, I can do it’ so I ran through the line. It was exciting to see the world record. I am happy,” Usain Bolt told reporters after their triumph.

Defending his 200-meter title earlier in the championships, Bolt won two gold at this Worlds Championship after he was disqualified in the 100 meter final for a false start on the second day.
Jamaica dominated the sprinting events winning all of their medals in 100 to 400 meter dashes, while Kenya raked in all of their medals from long-distance races from the 800 meters to the marathon.

Abel Kirui took home his second Worlds title in men’s marathon clocking 2 hours 7 minutes and 38 seconds. The country had already swept the podium on the first day in the women’s marathon and in women’s 10-thousand meters.

But the United States maintained the lead on the medal table until the last day, with 25 medals overall, including 12 gold. America’s sprinting star, Allyson Felix, won the most medals with four two gold from women’s 4-by-100 and 400 meter relays as well as silver in 400 and a bronze in 200 meters. Russia placed first-runner up, with their world champions reigning in race walks as well as in other disciplines.
Germany, Britain, China, Australia, Ethiopia and Ukraine also made it in the top 10. As the host nation, Korea vowed for a place in the top 10 in 10 events but only two out of the team made it.

Both results came from the race walk, with Kim Hyun-sub finishing sixth in men’s 20-kilometer and Park Chil-sung coming in seventh in 50-kilometers.
The U.S. topped the medals table after nine days of riveting action, amassing 25 medals, including 12 gold, eight silver and five bronze medals, to finish ahead of Russia, with 19 medals with nine gold, four silver and six brionze medals.
Double Olympic sprint champion and world record holder Bolt teamed up with Nesta Carter, Michael Frater and Yohan Blake to better the mark of 37.10 seconds the Jamaicans ran to win gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Bolt, who ran the third leg in Beijing, took over the anchor role in the absence of injured former world record holder Asafa Powell and received the baton from Blake, his successor as 100-metre world champion, with a commanding lead.
The 24-year-old hurtled down the straight well clear of the field with his eyes fixed on the clock before crossing the line and tossing the baton into the air in delight having helped set the only world record at the 13th world championships.

“For me, it was just to go out there fast,” Bolt said. “We did just that. I am proud of my team. I am happy with myself.
“I had a little problem with my Achilles. I can’t run the bend. It was decided I would run the anchor.”
The Canadian team of Sam Effah of Calgary, Gavin Smellie of Etobicoke, Ont., Jared Connaughton of New Haven, P.E.I., and Justyn Warner of Markham, Ont., finished sixth in the semifinals, clocking 39.38 seconds, and did not advance to the final. Canada finished the championships with one medal – a silver in shot put by Dylan Armstrong of Kamloops.
In the relay, France finished second in a world championship record of 1.16 seconds behind the dominant Jamaicans to win the silver medal in 38.20 with Saint Kitts and Nevis claiming bronze in 38.49.

The Americans, who had never previously been beaten when they had reached a world championship 4×100-metre final, failed to finish after their third-leg runner Darvis Patton clipped a British athlete and fell over. The British quartet also failed to finish.
Bolt arrived in Daegu in less than dominant form after coming back from the injury that ended his 2010 season and admitted earlier that anxiety had caused him to false start in the 100metre final.

The championships were notable for the number of competing title holders who relinquished their crowns.
Big names to fall by the wayside included Bahraini imports Yusuf Kamel (men’s 800 metres) and Maryam Jamal (women’s 1,500 metres), Bekele (5,000, 10,000 metres) and Australian Steve Hooker (pole vault).
Among others losing their titles but still medalling were Blanka Vlasic (high jump), Andreas Thorkildsen (javelin), LaShawn Merritt (400 metres), Allyson Felix (200 metres) and Jessica Ennis (heptathlon).

In the women’s pole vault, one of the sport’s biggest names, Russian Yelena Isinbayeva, made a hash in her bid to claim a first global title since her second Olympic gold in the Beijing Games in 2008. Brazilian Fabiana Murer vaulted to a shock win.
Culled from Reuters
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