Golden Moments In Sports: Seye Ogunlewe’s Sensational Qualification To The Rio 2016 Olympics

Having to run on a wet track — more-so on an average course —  is an athlete’s greatest fear and performance inhibitor. With just a little amount of moisture, friction between the track and the shoe is reduced, and more energy diverted into forward motion. However, for a fully wet track, the runner has to exert more energy to maintain a foothold, putting him or herself at a greater risk of slipping off the track when they come into turns along the course. For one man though, a race against time on a heavily drenched track, earned him his qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics in Brazil. Seye Ogunlewe, will never forget his 100m race at the Nigerian Olympic trials, staged in Sapele, Delta State, where he raced to a Personal Best (PB) of 10.12s to retain his 100m national title and attain the Olympic qualification time. Following the heavy downpour, after the semifinals of the men’s 100m event where Ogunlewe hit his previous PB of 10.18s, there were speculations that the sprinter may come short of the qualification he worked so hard to reach — a time of 10.16s. And, this worry was not without reason, given the state of the track at the time of the race. Ogunlewe would, however, go on to prove the doubters wrong when he defied the weather and the wet track to cross the finish line in a time of 10.12s. It was a glorious day for the Nigerian, who also won one of the two finals in the 200m race with a time of 21.28s.

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This article was first published on 7th November 2018

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