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Tag: Enoch Adegoke

  • Commonwealth Games: Nigeria’s reach 100m Final

    Seye Ogunlewe and Enoch Adegoke on Sunday qualified for the men’s 100m final of the athletics event at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games

    Ogunlewe qualified for the final despite finishing third in his semi-final, while Adegoke won his semi-final and qualified automatically.

    Ogunlewe, who has a personal best time of 10.12secs, was third in semi-final 3 in a personal season’s best time of 10. 20secs.

    Cayman Islands’ Keman Hyman, who ran 10.10secs and South Africa’s Akani Simbine (10.12 seconds) were first and second, respectively.

    Ogunlewe qualified for the final as one of the fastest losers, as only the top two in each of the three semi-finals were guaranteed final spots.

    Adegoke ran a slower time than Ogunlewe in the semi-finals but Adegoke came first in semi-final 2 in 10.24secs after setting a new personal best of 10.19secs in the heats.

    However, Nigeria’s Ogho-Oghene Egwero failed to make the final after finishing sixth in semi-final 1 in 10.24secs.

    Ogunlewe will run in Lane 1 in Monday’s final, while Adegoke will start in Lane 5, one of the coveted middle lanes.

    Jamaican Yohan Blake and Simbile are the favourites to win the top two medals in the final.

    Blake, who has a personal best 9.69 secs, has already run 9. 90 secs this year.

    Simbine has a personal best of 9.89 secs and has run 9. 94 secs this year.

    NAN

  • 2018 Commonwealth Games: Adegoke not ready to make up numbers

    Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) undergraduate, Enoch Adegoke will be making his senior debut for Nigeria at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and the sprint specialist is not ready to just be a participant at the Gold Coast games in Australia.

    Adegoke, 100m men champion at the final of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Commonwealth Trials in Abuja, told NationSport yesterday that it was a dream comes true for him making the 37-man Team Nigeria list to the multi-sport championship.

    “It has always been my dream to compete for Nigeria at big stage like the Commonwealth Games and I cannot describe my feeling for making the final cut. I am just too excited that I will be competing at my first international tournament at senior level. It is not a smooth route to make the list; it was years, months and days of training under the watchful eyes of Coach Ayokunle Odelusi who has been an inspiration to me. I am not going to Australia to admire other athletes but to prove a point and also make my presence counts,” Adegoke said.

    The year two geography undergraduate however, admitted that representing Nigeria at such a big tournament would spur me on to aim high in the competition. “I want to thank God for ensuring that my dream becomes a reality. It has been a tough road to this stage and I am hoping that I can improve my personal best to 10.1secs at the games. I believe it is possible because other competitors are human being like me and everybody will only give his best,” he added.

    He expressed confidence in the team, adding that the training at the Abuja camp would aid the athletes to put the country on the podium at the games. “The camp is going on well and I am confidence that we can make Nigeria proud at the games because we have been training very well under the watchful eyes of the technical crew. We also need to believe in ourselves if we hope to make impact in Australia,” Adegoke enthused.

  • Commonwealth Games Trials: Adegoke, 100m men champion targets AFN standard

    Commonwealth Games Trials: Adegoke, 100m men champion targets AFN standard

    Enoch Adegoke, 100m men champion at the final of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) Commonwealth Trials in Abuja, says he will improve on his 10:34secs record at the competition.

    Adegoke, whose victory was his Personal Best (PB), told our reporter Friday that he was praying that God grants his wish to meet the required AFN standard.

    “The most important thing is the God factor, I hope to meet the standard by the Grace of God, that factor is very important. On my part, I will also train more,’’ he said.

    The trials winner said 10.14secs standard of AFN was getting more visible for him to grab.

    He commended the AFN Chairman, Ibrahim Gusau, for creating opportunities for athletes to compete with each to attain the official standard, saying they should not rest on their oars.

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    Adegoke of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, finished second with 10.51secs in the semi-final second to Seye Ogunlewe (Jnr) who finished at 10.44s.

    However, Adegoke came first in the final of the 100m dash by providence as Ogunlewe, a U.K.-based athlete with 10.12secs PB from Lagos did not start the final race on Thursday.

    Sunday Adeleye, AFN Technical Director, had early in the year said that foreign-based athletes should be ready for a fight with their home-based counterparts in line with the board’s new developmental programmes.

    NAN

  • Nigerian young athletes missing at IAAF World U-18 Championships

    Nigerian young athletes missing at IAAF World U-18 Championships

    In spite of registering young athletes for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World U-18 championships, the country did not attend.

    The development has again shattered the hopes of the young athletes to represent their country after camping for months at the High Performance Centre, University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).

    The competition began on Wednesday and will end on July 16 in Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani in Nairobi.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the IAAF website showed that Enoch Adegoke lined up in Heat 2, Gershon Omubo in Heat 3 of the 100m men did not start.

    Rosemary Chukwuma has been lined in Lane 2, Heat 4 later in the day for the 100m women.

    While in the 400m men, Nsikak Okon was, and Knowledge Omovoh and Umewedino Abasiono also did not also start in the 400m women.

    It will be recalled that Nigeria did not participate in the 2015 edition of the IAAF U-18 Championships because they did not secure visas.

    NAN reports that sometime in May, Amechi Akawo, the Secretary, Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), had given assurance that the country would participate in the event.

    Athletics enthusiasts who pleaded anonymity, however, said that it was becoming a norm to train young athletes with the hope of representing the country only for their hopes to be dashed.

    He, however, said that if Nigeria kept disappointing these young talented athletes, they might easily get lured by other countries.

    “Nigeria is blessed with immense talents but we keep failing to realise it and utilise our potential.

    “These young athletes were discovered and nurtured over time, if not given proper attention they may get lured by other countries and it will be a minus to our sport,’’ he said.