Former twice African 100m Champion and national record holder, Seun Ogunkoya seems to have reinvented himself with up and coming sprinter Consider Ekanem.
Ogunkoya was at his best in 1998, with a personal best of 9.92 in the 100m and 20.50seconds in the 200m, he was primed to be a world champion, but injuries cut short his career.
He has been inspiring young athletes quietly in his domain in Akure, Ondo State and one lad under his tutelage is Ekanem, who lately has been on the lips of every Nigerian athletics buff since running a world leading time of 10.10seconds at Dynamics Athletics meet in Lagos held in January.
Ekanem was off and on athletics searching for his true calling before fate brought him and Ogunkoya to work together. He has proved to be another athlete to watch out for in the never stopping Nigerian athletics production conveyor belt.
“He came to me and said to me, I’ve read your profile and I want to be like you. My aim is to run 9.98secs within a short period.
“And I am like, you will be more than me, consider yourself a world champion if only you would remain disciplined and patiently follow our laid down program.
“This is not about going to the internet to down load programes and knock yourself out with it.
“Ekanem has made a lot of progress from where we started in training together. Before teaming up with me he was doing 10.90 then 10.70.
“But after a period of time he picked up and last season he was constantly doing 10.2 and 10.3. At the 2022 National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State I even expected him to make an impact but because of distractions here and there, he could not do much.”
Ogunkoya said the best is yet to come from the 19 years-old Ekanem
Running 10.10secs for me was not a surprise to and I even told him that was not his time. He can do much more than that
So his legs would do more of the talking in the days to come
