Born in the Akoko area of Ondo State, South-West Nigeria,
sprint-star, Femi Ogunode, is now celebrated as Asia’s
fastest man.
Ogunode on June 4 broke the Asian record of the men’s
100m at the Asian Athletics Championships as he ran a time
of 9.91secs to lower his previously held record of 9.93
secs.
Speaking on his latest achievement, Ogunode, who was
virtually frustrated out of Nigeria to the Middle East, stated
on his Facebook fan page that he has all the reasons to
celebrate his rise to fame and stardom.
“When God gives you a reason to celebrate why won’t
you……. I celebrate my victory after winning Gold and
breaking the Asian record” the 24-year old said on Saturday
as he again reflected on his awesome performance.
Interestingly, Ogunode who is now the fastest man in the
world’s most populous continent started out as a boxer
before switching to football and finally athletics in 2006.
Sadly, while Nigeria’s fortunes in men’s athletic is dwindling
by the day on the home front and officials are doling out
millions to recruit rejected America-based athletes who
have failed to make any meaningful impact , the feat of
Ogunode means that Nigerian men now own the record in
the 100m’s men event in three top continents’ of the world.
Olusoji Fasuba with a time of 9.85secs remains Africa’s
fastest man ever while Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu holds
the European record with his time of 9.86secs.
Ogunode in a recent interview with Qatar’s first English
sports weekly magazine, DohaStadiumPlus, took the lid off
why he dumped Nigeria for Qatar and was equally
unequivocal that he is happy he took the calculated risk
which has now turned out to be one of his best decisions.
“I wanted to compete in the 2007 All-Africa Games in
Algiers, Algeria. I ran in the Mobil Track and Field race, the
Nigerian qualification event for it. I made the cut, but they
dropped me without any explanation.
“A year later, I qualified for the biennial IAAF World Junior
Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, as the best age-group
sprinter in Nigeria. Subsequently, I also made it to the senior
side for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
“But due to politics within the Athletics Federation of Nigeria
(AFN), they dropped me from the squad for Poland,
pacifying me by saying I would get my chance in China. I
agreed, as I always wanted to compete in the Olympics. But
just two weeks prior to the Games, I found out I was out of
the team. I felt powerless against the AFN’s internal games.
“It was then that I received an e-mail asking whether I was
interested to do trials in Qatar. I wrote back saying I was,
but that I didn’t have money to make the trip. They
requested a copy of my passport and soon, I was attending
trials in Doha. It turned out to be one of the best decisions I
ever made in my life,” he concluded.
A peep into Ogunode’s biography reveals that his maiden
competition as an athlete was at the Obafemi Awolowo
U-18 Championship in Ibadan, Nigeria, where he won gold in
100m and 200m in the same year he started running –
2006.
As stated on his personal website, based on his
performance at the U-18 Championship. Ogunode was
invited to participate in the 2006 ExxonMobil Track & Field
Championship (Nigeria’s test event for the 2007 All African
Games held in Algiers, Algeria), where he won the 5th place,
although he didn’t qualify to participate at Algiers.
Undaunted by this, he continued with his trainings and his
determination to succeed made him to become Nigeria’s
no.1 junior athlete in 2008, a position that automatically
qualified him for both the World Junior Championship and
the Beijing Olympics, both of which he was denied
attendance due to politicking within the athletics
administration.
Ogunode moved to Qatar in October 2009 and began
international competition the following year.
From then it has been an upward swing for Nigeria-born
Qatar star. At the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, he took
two gold medals, winning over 200m and 400 metres with
personal bests of 20.43 seconds and 45.12 seconds,
respectively.
This made him only the second athlete in the Games history
to have won both events at the same competition. He also
became the Asian champion in 200 metres, at Kobe, Japan.
He equalled the Championship record – 20.41sec – en
route to gold. At the ongoing 2015 Asian championship,
Ogunode won three gold medals – 100m, 200m and
4x100m.
Hoping that Nigeria will get it right someday, Yusuf Ali the
national record holder in Long Jump and the former
Technical Director for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria,
told PREMIUM TIMES that the country really needs to invest
more in its youth athlete to bring the country back to full
reckoning.
“The sad thing is that we are not investing enough in our
youth athletes, imagine the Super Eagles can take a
chattered flight to go and play a friendly in South Africa and
we say we don’t have money to buy tickets for our youth to
attend a competition they have worked and trained hard
for., It does not speak well of us as a country ” Ali said as
he reflected on the incidences that clouded Nigeria’s
participation at the last Africa Youth Athletics
Championships in Mauritius where the country was forced
to present a lean squad which even missed the opening day
of events owing to paucity of funds.
Ali said he feared the worse for Nigerian athletics if more
concerted effort is not put in place to ‘catch them young’
and also invest in the youth.
“In this country we don’t even have the base, the base for
track and field is like 6,000 athletes will start and at the end
you will pick like 5 or 6 of them in the end that will be good.
But now when you have a base of like 1,000 and you are
now not even attending to them as you should then there is
no future. I think that is one thing we should address. The
base for track and field is very difficult, for football;
anybody can just wake up and starting kicking any round
object, it is very difficult in track and field, interest has to
build very early.”

One truth in life is that in every disappointment there is a great blessing as long as you don't give up.

There are many like him who had been sidelined by corrupt politics, who waste away in Nigeria without anyone to help them. This guy's fate would have been the same had Qatar not come calling. He should thank his God.

Volksfuhrer:
There are many like him who had been sidelined by corrupt politics, who waste away in Nigeria without anyone to help them.

.....aka. dream killers

Great!!!

Good! Congrats Femi. We are proud of you.

I am happy for him.

Nigeria loosing talents to foreign soil. Politics here and there but without improvement

World record is the next!!!