Nigerian discuss record holder, Adewale Olukoju, wants international exposure for Nigerian athletes and coaches but he says he wont allow Nigerian administrators supervise his children if they become athletes, reports TANA AIYEJINAFormer Nigeria athletics great Adewale Olukoju has veered into a familiar terrain since quitting the field several years ago.Olukoju, who holds the Nigerian discuss record, is a Deputy Sheriff in the United States of America and theres a strong affinity between Nigerian sportsmen and women and the police.Some of the countrys best athletes like Chioma Ajunwa, Sunday Bada, Loveth Ekufu, Samuel Peter and several other top past and present athletes attained the heights while with the force.Olukoju was one of the best athletes of his time and along with female sprinter Mary Onyali became the first athletes to win four gold medals at the All-Africa Games.But today, the ex-thrower is now involved in keeping law and order in the United States of America, where he and his family reside.After I retired from track and field, I became a Deputy Sheriff in Orange County in the State of California. A Deputy Sheriff is the same as a policeman except that instead of working in just one city, I can work and enforce the law in the whole county, Olukoju told our correspondent recently in a telephone interview.The retired athlete was part of a golden generation of athletes that included the likes of Chidi Imoh, Olapade Adenekan, Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya, the Ezinwa brothers: Davidson and Osmond, Fatima Yusuf, Beatrice Utondu, Maria Usifo and others.This generation of athletes put Nigeria on the international athletics map with their impressive performances in the 1980s and 1990s.Olukoju recounts his early days as an athlete, saying contrary to other parents who prevented their children from participating in sporting activities, he got the support of his parents.He said, I was born in Zaria, but I grew up in Sokoto. I was lucky to have a family that mostly stayed out of my way when I started sports and luckily for me, I was able to secure a track scholarship in time to continue schooling.I started throwing through the encouragement of a senior thrower Egbunu Williams when I was in secondary school. I stopped briefly but was later talked into starting again by Isabor Usman popularly known as Long Long Skido, who was then Sokoto States middle distance champion.I also met Cosmas Sampson who taught me how to lift weights in Sokoto. Through my determination and the luck of meeting the right people at the right time, I became serious and also realised that becoming a better thrower would give me the opportunity of getting an educational scholarship in the United States.I never saw anything as a challenge when I was in Nigeria. I was just focused on my main objective to get a scholarship into a school in the United States.However, Olukoju said success in discuss and shot put was borne out of a personal determination to triumph.My dominance in the shot put and discus was mainly because of my determination to become a world-class thrower. While in Sokoto, I was training twice a day for six days a week; my strenuous training was to ensure that I become one of the best in my field.More like a twist of fate, Olukojus best years as an athlete turned out to be his worst.He recalled, My two best years were in 1991 and 1992. At the World Championships in Tokyo in 1991, I should have won a medal but due to inexperience at that level, I failed to take care of a minor hamstring injury the day before the finals and it ended up causing a bigger problem at the finals.I was averaging 64 and 65 meters in most of the competitions I attended that year with a best of 67.80 meters for the year. I still think that if Lars Riedel from Germany could win with 66.20 meters, then I should have won a medal too. I will consider Tokyo 1991 as my worst moment in track and field. I was not on the team to the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. I possibly could have won a medal there also.He lamented the inability of the country to produce world-class athletes like it used to do in his time. He advised the administrators to resort to the grassroots, where stars like himself were discovered, and also expose the athletes internationally.The development of a world class thrower or athlete is a long process. We dont have any process or system in place to discover and develop new athletes. The best way to do this is to start from the primary and secondary schools.Any potential athlete needs to be taught the basics in whatever event they are likely to participate in. Right now, we do not have enough coaches to do what is needed and the people at the AFN have no idea what they are doing. There is no reason for us not to send young athletes and some Nigerian coaches to IAAF training centers. We will benefit greatly from what they will learn, Olukoju added.Olukoju is married to another Nigerian great Fatima Yusuf. Fatima a quarter miler, won the 400m metres race at the Cairo 1991 All-Africa Games and was second in the 200m. She is also the first African woman to run under 50 secs (49.43) in the 400m.The Azusa Pacific University graduate was a member of Nigerias women 4x400m quartet that won silver at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games. The other members were Bisi Afolabi, Charity Opara and Falilat Ogunkoya.But if you think Olukoju and wife would just let go off their children to represent Nigeria like they did, then you are making a mistake.Even though Olukoju would want his kids to also participate actively in sports, he is skeptical about leaving them in the hands of Nigerian sports officials.He said, I and Fatima have been married for over 13 years now and have two beautiful children. I am sure they will do sports; sprints, but not throws. Regarding whether they will represent Nigeria, I really do not know.But it would be very difficult for Fatima and me to allow our children to be under the supervision of any Nigerian sports administrator. Except maybe the likes of Elias Gora or Alhassan Yakmut are still around.The Deputy Sheriff admits he is enjoying life in retirement but would want to contribute more to the upliftment of the countrys athletes.Recently he was among former Nigerian athletes in the USA who contributed money to buy a box of throwing shoes for throwers who could not compete with their peers from other parts of the world.He is desirous of seeing Nigerian throwers making an impact at the world level again.Life has been okay since I stopped throwing competitively. I do not really miss throwing, but I only wished I had the knowledge about throwing then as I do now. I just wish I can be of more help to develop new athletes, he concluded.
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