Gabriel Okon, the head coach of Team Nigeria to the just ended 16th IAAF World Championships in London, has explained why the quartet that ran in the final of the women’s 4x400m final at the IAAF World Championships was selected.
Many critics blamed the coaches for fielding Abike Egbeniyi who arrived in London from Nigeria for the competition barely 32 hours to the race and insisted Emerald Egwin who ran in the semi-finals where the team ran 3:25.40 seconds should have been retained.
Some others also criticised the coaches for running Nigreia’s pre-championships fastest athlete in the pool, Patience Okon George, in the first leg, arguing that she should have anchored the team.
“I can understand the ordinary people on the streets but not former Nigeria internationals who should have strived to find out why Egwin did not run,” Okon said.
“The truth is Egwin was not fit to run on the day as she complained of stomach upset among other complaints. The problem started in the semi-finals and she barely warmed up for the race. We decided to gamble on her because there was no alternative. This informed our decision to ask for Abike to come so that we could at least have an alternative if Egwin did not recover on time.
“Unfortunately she didn’t and we had to use the only option available and she didn’t disappoint. Our chances of getting a medal were reduced the day we lost Margaret Bamgbose, one of the three girls who competed in the open 400m, to injury. We knew it would be a herculean task because some of the other teams rested athletes for the final but we couldn’t.
“So people used the time run in the semi-final to automatically assume we could have won if the time was repeated in the final. Britain ran faster in the semis (3:24.74) than in the final (3:25.00) and still won a silver medal in spite of the fact that they brought in fresh legs in 400m hurdler Elidih Doyle in place of Perri Shakes-Drayton while Poland who came third (3:25.41) introduced two fresh legs, Aleksandra Gaworska and Justyna Swiety, in place of Patrycja Wyciszkiewicz and Martyna Dabrowska.
