Athletes of the week: The 2nd All-Comers Meet hosted by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) witnessed numerous mind-blowing Personal Bests across various Track and Field events.
Two of the most impressive came from Grace Nwokocha in the Women’s sprint double and Adeyemi Sikiru in the Men’s 400m.
Grace gave a tip of what to expect in the final during the heat as she eased off to the line in a then Personal Best of 11.31s, in the semis, she clocked 11.43s and in the final, she led from start to finish in a National Lead of 11.23s which is the fastest legal time ever run on home soil since 2016 where Blessing Okagbare ran 11.01s to win her 7th National title.
She wasn’t done yet, as she stormed to yet another Personal Best in the 200m, ranking the fastest overall with a time of 23.17s just a few micro seconds off the Olympic standard of 22.75s.
Speaking to the Port Harcourt based sprinter on her recent developments, she had this to say, “I just had to put more effort in every of my training session, following the already mapped out done by Coach George Obiano and also working more on my endurance level which really helped me in my 200m.
“I’m excited about my performance and hopefully working towards making the Olympics standards in both events.”
Our Male Athlete of the Week is Adeyemi Sikiru, who got a standing ovation from the crowd after running a brilliant race during the 400m heat clocking 45.96s to become the National Leader.
Sikiru has been consistent with his times since last year November at the Okowa Post-Covid Meet in Asaba, where he clocked 46.17s in a highly contested race with Atinaya Daniel who also ran a PB of 46.07s to take the victory.
Sikiru went on to begin his 2021 campaign retuning 46.19s to show that his time in November wasn’t a fluke. Just the second meet of the season and he has dropped yet another scorching time.
Speaking with theathleticheat.com he expressed his joy, thanking God, his coach and teammate for their support.
“A big thanks to Almighty God for the strength and power and I also thanks my Coach Hammed Muritala and my training partner Abdulraman Abdulafeez for the support and encouragements.
“I’m so excited to run under 46s for the first time which I pray for more PB’s to come Insha Allah. After my first race this season my coach said guy I believe you can do more than that and we have to work on some area which I really worked on it as my coach said and I saw the results last weekend. My coach is the best I swear.”
His expectation for the rest of this season is to run more faster and run the Olympics standard. He equally prayed for an injury free season for himself and all Nigeria athletes.
This award is being sponsored by Yesir Foundation and they will both receive cash rewards for their efforts.