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Nigeria: Athletes Blame Altitude for Poor Show
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Vanguard (Lagos)
7 May 2008
Posted to the web 7 May 2008
Ben Efe
Lagos
Nigerian athletes at last Sunday's African championships in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia arrived Lagos yesterday. They told the story of how the high altitude in that country worked against them.
Asthmatic Olusoji Fasuba and Ajoke Odumosu choked, Nurudeen Salim and Toyin Augustus couldn't cope. These were just the highlights of the difficulties the Nigerian contingent faced in 'thin air' Addis Ababa.
During the heats Fasuba went into a fit, but was stabilized. It was because he did not want to let his teeming fans and country down that he had to dig deep in the final to come up with a 10.10 seconds run. It was his first major race of the season he had to over stretch and that was responsible for the injury that he picked up.
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Odumosu suffered as well, but her determination to make up for the disappointment she posted last year at the All Africa Games pushed her up.
The athletes blamed their plight on the travel arrangement made by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria. To overcome the high altitude in the Ethiopia capital, other countries were on ground for clear five days training, but Nigeria arrived 48 hours to the start of the championships.
Nigeria surrendered medals in the 4x100m men relay, the 110m hurdles where Salim slumped to the third position and the 100m hurdles where Augustus failed to shine. Dorren Amata failed to fly in the women high jump.
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