•Echikwunoke
Annette Echikunwoke, a former Nigerian hammer thrower, has won an Olympic medal for the United States in the ongoing 33rd Paris Olympic Games in France.
The feat is coming in the wake of Nigeria’s poor outing in the games, reports Daily Trust.
Nigerian athletes are yet to win a medal at the Olympics which will end on Sunday.
The 28-year-old threw a season’s best of 75.48 m to win silver for her adopted country.
She finished behind Canada’s Camryn Rodgers, who threw 76.79m to win gold, while China’s Jie Zhao picked the bronze with a throw of 74.27m.
Commenting on the feat, Washington Post quoted her to have said, “I’m happy it’s happening now. Everything happens for a reason, even if it’s bad or good or ugly. But this is beautiful.”
Her success came four years after she was disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics due to administrative errors by Nigerian officials, despite not testing positive for banned substances.
Born in the US to Nigerian parents, Echikunwoke initially chose to represent Nigeria in 2021 Olympics but switched allegiance to the United States after the Tokyo incident.
Her decision to switch allegiance has now proved fruitful, as she is now one of America’s top hammer throwers.
All eyes are now on Tobi Amusan, Nigerian track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 metres hurdles and also competes as a sprinter.
Amusan, current world record holder in the 100 metres hurdles with a time of 12.12 seconds which she set at the 2022 women’s 100 metres hurdles semi final in Eugene Oregon, has just qualified for semi-finals of the Women’s 100m Hurdles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
This morning, she won her heat with a time of 12.49 seconds in her third consecutive Semi-Finals at the Olympics.
Former Super Eagles Coach, Adegboye Onigbinde, yesterday took a swipe at Nigeria’s performance in the game attributing it to lack of good sports administration in the country.
“You see, why Nigerian athletes are not performing well in the ongoing Olympics and other international sports competitions is not technical, but administrative.
“Is it technical that an athlete who qualified properly in her event will be ridiculed by not registering her for participation?
“Situations like this will continue if our administrators don’t separate politics from sports,” the veteran technical sports director said.
According to him, most of the administrators have forgotten the core objective of developmental programmes in sports which had earned the country some measure of success in the past.
