Falilat Ogunkoya, retired Nigerian Veteran athletes has revealed the story behind her meritous career and cherished memories in a recent question and answer engagement.
She began in response to the question of who gave her the fisrt running shoes and at what age, “My parents bought me my first running shoe , My coach John Afuwape gave my first Spike shoe in 1980.
“My mum was always worried when I took to athletics because I was born as a premature, she always followed me to the airport, but she took solace in the fact that my father told her that maybe this is the path God has chosen for me”.
“Sometimes you look back in life despite what you have achieved and wished you did some things better, I wish I had listened to my coach to run 400hurdle and put more effort in 200m and 800m”, she recalled.
“The major obstacle now is that athletes don’t have lots of competitions to take part in including athletes welfare, NSF can only achieve thier aims if all the State in a Federation can take care of thier won athletes, before and after competion. We can win a medal if the government are ready to support the Athletes and let the coaches that are ready to work come on board and the Athletes really need to be monitored”, she advised.
It is noteworthy that the former track and field athlete won a number of national championships, including a gold medal in 1996 in the 400 metres, gold in the 200 metres and 400 m in 1998, and gold again in 1999 and 2001 in the 400 m.
