Four swimmers carry Nigeria's flag to Montreal

Progress made by the Nigerian swimmers at the 8th All Africa Games in Abuja and the 1st Afro-Asian Games in Hydrabad, India all in 2003 would be placed on trial as four are being sent to the 11th FINA World Swimming Championships holding in Montreal, Canada from July 15th to 31st.

Two things are like to happen for the four Nigerians selected for the championships. One is that one or some of them would win medals for the country which, of course, never happened at any world championships Nigeria had attended in recent years. And second is that should they fail in the medal attempt, one or two or them also will break existing national or African records and which basis confirmed their eligibility for past world championships attended in recent times . Both developments point towards improvements in training and competitions.

Already geared up for this challenge, the Nigeria Swimming Federation, keen to do more, chose four swimmers, two males and two females, to carry the nations flag at the event. The four, Eric Williams, Sunny Ayejo, Obia Inyengiyikabo and Blessing Forcados are all sprinters. They will be accompanied by three officials namely coach Philip Demehin, secretary Dans Adokiye and president of the federation Allwell Onyesoh, who is also the Congress delegate.

National coach, Demehin expressed hopes in Lagos that the four selected would have a good outing by the selected four, saying a lot would depend on the athletes themselves, NSF assistant secretary, Lucky Asemota said the four were chosen based on current form. "We have good chances of doing well. The good thing is we are competing. When you compete at that level, you are bound to go at the pace of the best. And that’s why we made a success of the last two years," he said.

Officials rate Nigeria’s chances as fair, based on what to expect at the world level. Indeed, Obia, who won a bronze medal at the All Africa Games in Abuja and two gold medals at the Afro- Asian Games in India same year, perhaps lead the chase and could prove the point in Montreal. She is entered for the 50m and 100m backstroke. Considering she won a silver medal at the 2004 Africa Senior Swimming Championships in Casablanca, there is no doubt the eye of officials are on her .

She goes to Montreal with a lot of experience in addition. Obia was at the event when it held in Moscow, Russia and the Africa Senior Swimming Championships in Cairo, Egypt, although it was the 25m Course.

Eric Williams, who is entered for the 50m and 100m breast- stroke in the World Championships. Considering he won a bronze medal at the same African Senior Swimming Championships last year in Casablanca, Morocco, he is also being looked upon to do better than last year’s form. He is currently the best male swimmer Nigeria has, according to the federation ranking.

Blessing Forcados, who will take the usual 50m and 100m breast-stroke women, is currently rated the most improved female swimmer in the country while Sunny Ayejo who would compete in the 50m and 100m butterfly events, is rated the best butterfly swimmer inn the country. The duo would be having a first time experience in the World Championships.

Besides competing in their areas specialty, Asemota also says all the swimmers can do the 200m events.

Asked why the likes of Musa Bakare, Ngozi Monu and others who hitherto championed the country’s cause at former world and African events were excluded this time from the Montreal trip, Asemota said it was purely a technical decision.

"Selection was made based on the current form of the swimmers. There is no doubt about it. Anywhere in the world the swimmers are, whatever time is made is reorded by the world body.And we will get it in the federation. So, it’s current form and the time made that decided who made the list," he said in Lagos also.

Canadian Hayden, others set

BrentHayden won the 100-metre freestyle Sunday night, setting his third record at the Mel Zajac Jr. International swim meet. His three victories helped ease Hayden’s mind as he prepares for next month’s world aquatic championships in Montreal, Canadian papers have reported..

"It means that all my fretting I’ve been doing about swimming poorly in training means absolutely nothing," said the Mission, B.C., native who also broke meet records in winning the 50 and 200-metre freestyle over the weekend. "All that matters is when you get up on the blocks and perform. Any good swim I can pull out of this meet helps me a lot."

Hayden was named the meet’s top male swimmer. Brittany Reimer, who also won three races and set a meet record in the 1,500-metres, was the top female.

Hayden won the 100 free in 49.96 seconds. That betters the old mark of 50.20 seconds he set last year. He won the 50-metre freestyle in 22.96 seconds, shaving 9-100s of a second off the 25-year-old mark set by North Carolina’s Joe Bottom. In the 200-metre freestyle, he was clocked in 1:49.36, eclipsing the previous meet mark of 1:49.77 set last year by Mark Johnston of Vancouver.

The 42nd edition of the Mel Zajac meet attracted 307 swimmers from Canada and the U.S. All 23 members of the world championship team attended. Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada’s newly appointed chief executive officer, was impressed with the national team results at the event.

Other members of the world championship team to win over the weekend include Mike Mintenko, a two-time Olympian, who won the 50 and 100-metre butterfly and Mike Brown in the 100 and 200-metre breaststroke.

By Ifesinachi Nwankwo

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