₦airaland Forum

WiszyFraud:
What's Kikilove?!?

WiszyFraud:
I only know this one below

naptu2:
What is this man's name?

WiszyFraud:
I only know this one below

Prenonjebose:
That is Nduka Odizor at the Wimbledon quarter final. The only Nigerian to get to a grand slam quaters. The golfer really has a mouthful name. I sight Chidi Imoh's picture. He was the fastest African at a time.

armadeo:
Power mike uti.


Na only pictures I look I no read the names oh.

naptu2:
The anti-spam bot repeatedly attacked my 2016 thread, so this post is part of a test to see if I can post certain things without the anti-spam bot attacking them.


Memory

She usually did her best to annoy and irritate me during sporting events. LA '84 was one of the worst. Nigeria had a 400 metres star and his name was Innocent Egbunike. She renamed him Innocent Egusi n ke. We had a star weightlifter called Oliver Orok and she renamed him Oliver Okro. I wished that I could kill her during the 1988 African Nations Cup (Maroc '88).


The Phenomenon


Oliver Orok caught the attention of the world at the 1982 Commonwealth Games where he won overall gold in the sub heavyweight category. In fact, if I remember correctly, he won gold in all the individual events as well and he set a new Commonwealth, African and Nigerian record.

Oliver Orok also won gold at LA '84, but he didn't win gold. What do I mean? The weightlifting events at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles also served as the weightlifting World Championship. Performance in individual events (clean& jerk, snatch, etc.) counted towards world championship medals, while only the overall performance (in all events) counted in the award of Olympic medals.

Oliver Orok won gold in the snatch event and thus became a world champion. He was therefore leading in the Olympic competition. However, he got injured (I can't remember for sure if it was during an event or while training) and subsequently did terribly in the other events. He might have become Nigeria's first Olympic Gold medalist if he hadn't been injured.


Check out his muscles. This video is of Oliver Orok's performance at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, Australia. (I hope the anti-spam bot does not attack it).



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6GiTaqO3ak

naptu2:
Some people are crucifying Charity Opara at the moment on Twitter. That's because a Twitter handle posted videos of the 4x400 metres race at the 1996 Olympics and these Twitter users felt that Charity Opara prevented Nigeria from winning gold. But I need to explain what happened.


(By the way, dear diary, I have already told you about Falilat Ogunkoya and Glasseswoman. In fact I posted a video of an individual race in which Fali defeated Glasseswoman. Well, this particular relay race also ended with Fali and Glasseswoman in the top 2 positions).


You see, in this race, Olabisi Afolabi was the young kid that was the star of the future, the golden child. Fatima was the experienced legend. She had been representing Nigeria in the 400m longer than any of her teammates (going back into the mid-1980s). Falilat Ogunkoya initially focused on the 200m in the mid-1980s and then switched to the 400 and became a worldwide superstar.


Unlike the 3 stars mentioned above, Charity Opara had never been Nigeria's number 1 in the 400m. She was good, but she had always been between the 2nd to the 5th place in the Nigerian team. She was never a global superstar and she never won individual gold for Nigeria at any international competition. Therefore, like the commentator said, she was the weakest link in the Nigerian team.

By the way, the commentator is wrong. This is not Christie Opara-Thompson. Christie Opara-Thompson was a superstar that ran the 100m, 200m and did the long jump for Nigeria. She later defected to the US in the mid or late 1990s. This is not Christie Opara-Thompson, this is Charity Opara.


So, as expected, the young star Olabisi Afolabi shot out of the blocks and gave Nigeria the lead. The Australians were second and the Soviet and US athletes were further behind. Afolabi created a very good gap between Nigeria and the Australians.

Fatima Yusuf took over and maintained the gap and the lead for Nigeria.

Then Charity Opara took over. The Soviet athlete got into second place and then the US athlete overtook her. The US athlete then overtook Charity Opara and other athletes were gaining on her.

Then Charity handed the baton to Falilat Ogunkoya. At the same time, Glasseswoman took the baton for the US. Fali chased and almost caught up with Glasseswoman, but she couldn't. Legendary German athlete and Chioma Ajunwa's training partner Grit Breuer almost caught up with Fali and Glasseswoman at the end, but the final result was Glasseswoman (1st), Falilat (2nd) and Grit Breuer (3rd).

Some people on Twitter are currently criticising Charity Opara for her performance, but Charity Opara was never on the same level as the other 3 in the Nigerian team. It would have been very different if we still had Maria Usifo (the legendary 100 and 400m hurdler). Nigeria would have won if she was in that team with the other 3, but she had retired years before this race.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn7j-u93dug

naptu2:


Watching Chiney Ogwumike interview Nigerians that have been picked in the 2017 NBA draft reminds me of an interview that Victor Ubogu gave to the BBC around 15 years ago.

The BBC wanted to find out why rugby wasn't so big in Nigeria, despite the fact that there are so many great Nigerian rugby players. However, what caught my attention was when he said that whenever he scores a try, he looks at another Nigerian player in his team and they both shout, "Eba!"

gentleguy1975:
i didn't see the following:Dondo avaa,Kenneth Zeigbo,jero shakppke Sam ojebode,baba otu Mohammed

Charity Event in Brescia - Italy, with Andrei Chesnokov, Jordi Arrese, Nduka Odizor, Stefano Pescosolido and the Italian actor Francesco Salvi.

Chesnokov played the event just after the final in Davis Cup (Russia/USA), playing a match with 5 sets vs Pete Sampras.

Organizers: Lorenzo Turchi and Marco Majrani; marketing: Ellisse Srl

Mexyz:
Yakubu Aiyegbeni is missing on your list op..

I'm so proud to see many Edo names up there, at least we've contributed a lot when it comes to bringing smile on the faces of Nigerians through sports.

naptu2:
More pictures