Nigerian Born Ebelechuku Agbapuonu, from Onisha, now Salwa Eid Naser of Bahrain has stunned the world of sports at the on-going IAAF World Championships taking place in Doha, by winning the 400 meters women event in a time of 48.14 secs.
She won by running the third fastest time ever and beating Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, who had already been universally crowned as the gold medalist by all announcers and pundits before the race began. Being a former 400 meters runner myself, I can attest to the fact that this was one of the best 400 meters race executions that I have ever seen at this level of competition.
Salwa’s race was a complete display of guts, plan execution, determination and total inner conviction that she would win. No one was going to stop her. It was quite a show, put on for the world by the petite 21 year old.
Shaunae had the best times in the world in the 200, 300 and 400 meters this year coming into the final of this race. So, she never entertained the possibility of losing this race to Salwa.
After the race, Shaunae sat down in a corner of the track stunned in disbelief and dumbfounded at what just happened. Shaunae ran the race of her life and returned a personal best of 48.37 secs. but it was Salwa’s day.
Salwa took off sprinting at the blast of the gun and ran the backstretch hard and well. By the time she completed the last curve she had passed Shaunae. She came into the last 100m meters about 10 meters ahead and simply maintained her form and carried the speed home. Shaunae pushed, closed the gap slightly and tried to catch up in the last twenty meters but it was too late.
The petite lady was in rare form and hit the tape first for the victory. Unbelievable!
HER STORY
I first met Ebelechukwu (Salwa) in 2012, when she came to Calabar to participate in the South South All Comers Athletics Championship which I organized in Cross River State from 2011 to 2015. That year, she won the 200 meters race in the U-15 category, beating my athlete Mercy Ntia Obong.
Both athletes met again in Port Hacourt in the same event at the National School Sports Festival (NSSF) and Ebelechukwu won the encounter. In 2013 they met in Ilorin at the NSSF and Ebele won the 400 meters. Mercy beat her in the last leg of the 4×100 meters relay. Ebelechukwu has always been a very good athlete with beautiful running form.
Driving her sprint from the hip joint. She was coached then by Johnny Igboka and our only concern was how to control her excess energy which occasionally bordered on minor indiscipline. We counseled and encouraged her because we knew for sure that she was going to the top. In early 2014, I got a call from Johnny that Ebelechukwu had relocated to Bahrain and taken citizenship of that country to pursue her career in sports.
I did not know what to make of it because I thought it was too early in her career (at 15 years old) to make that switch.
However, I was happy that she will now be in a more conducive and nurturing environment with good remuneration, facilities, coaching and competition to make her blossom.
The results of her exploits thereafter are posted below for all to see.
2014 Arab Junior Championships
Cairo, Egypt 1st 200 m 24.61
2014 Arab Junior Championships
Cairo, Egypt 1st 400 m 55.72
2014 Youth Olympic Games
Nanjing, China 2nd 400 m 52.74
2015 Asian Youth Championships
Doha, Qatar 1st 400 m 53.02
2015 World Youth Championships
Cali, Colombia 1st 400 m 51.50
2015 Milit ary World Games
Mungyeong, South Korea 1st 400 m 51.39
2017 World Championships
London, United Kingdom 2nd 400 m 50.06
2018 Asian Games
Jakarta, Indonesia 1st 400 m 50.09
2018 Asian Games Jakarta, Indonesia
1st Mixed 4 × 400 metres relay 3:11.89
2018 IAAF Continental Cup
Ostrava, Czech Republic 1st 400 m 49.32
2019 World Championships
Doha, Qatar 1st 400 m
48.14 NR
If Ebelechukwu had remained in Nigeria, she would not have made it into the finals of the 400 meters talk less of winning the 400 meters and becoming the champion of the world in 2019.
Also, remember that she won a bronze medal in the mixed 4×400 meters relay, a team comprised of four Nigerian athletes who are now citizens of Bahrain. They are happy to be out of Nigeria where they are unappreciated and treated like dirt. Three athletes from my program in Calabar are also in Bahrain and doing very well.
They won several gold medals for Bahrain at the 2018 Asian Championship. So, Salwa is going home with one gold and one bronze medal, from the World Championships and $80,000.00 dollars cash plus winning bonuses from the government of Bahrain etc etc.
I congratulate Salwa Eid Naser and her compatriots and I know that she will be springing more surprises and winning more world athletics titles in the foreseeable future. Look out for her in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
LESSONS FOR NIGERIA
Meanwhile, Nigeria is going home from this same Championship without hope of a medal. There is a great lesson for Nigeria and her officials to learn from this story. We can change our fortunes and put our athletes on the medals podium within 6 to 8 years if given the support and resources to do the right thing.
The resources will go towards implementing programs that discover athletes at a young age, provide a good team of coaches, technical support, nurturing, athletes welfare, education and top-quality competitions. I did it very successfully in Cross River State and I want to do it again nationally. I would like to hear from Hon. Sunday Dare, the new Minister for Sports and patriots who are willing to help us out of this mess. THE GIANT OF AFRICA MUST WAKE UP FROM THIS SLUMBER.
BURKINA FASO, NAMIBIA, IVORY COAST, UGANDA, ETHIOPIA, SOUTH AFRICA AND KENYA are the African countries that won medals at this championship. Nigeria can win at this level too.
Our athletes will continue to leave for other countries in droves once they are discovered, unless our officials at the local and national levels implement good welfare programs and stop cheating and stealing from the athletes. These athletes have families to take care of, they have to eat, transport themselves to training, buy training equipment, travel to competitions etc.
It is only when you take good care of your athletes that you can demand and get more than 100 percent from them in training and competition. Wake up Nigeria.
