Three Olympic Finalists Storm Calabar for Championships

As many as three finalists from last year's 30th Olympic Games in London will be on parade this week at the 67th Cross River State/All Nigeria Open Athletics Championships scheduled to begin at the U.J Esuene Stadium in Calabar Wednesday.

Top on the list of the finalists is reigning national 100m queen, Blessing Okagbare, who made it to the finals of the blue ribband event at the quadrennial games.

Okagbare, who holds the pre-championships' best in the 100m (11.00 seconds),200m (22.31 seconds) and long jump (6.92m) is aiming to extend not only her dominance in the 100m but also create a piece of championships history by becoming the first woman in modern times to win the 100m gold five times consecutively.

Also expected to add glamour to the championships which will be used to select Nigeria's representatives to the 14th IAAF World Championships later this year in Moscow, Russia is 400m barrier runner, Ajoke Muizat Odumosu who made history last year as the first Nigerian quarter-mile hurdler to run in the finals of the Olympics.

The University of South Alabama graduate also set a new 54.40 seconds national record on her historic night on the track at the Olympic stadium in London.

Completing the list of finalists is triple jumper, Tosin Oke who will be aiming to extend his reign as Nigeria's undisputed king of the hop, step and jump event.

Also expected in Calabar are as many as three semi-finalists from the same Olympic Games. They will be led by 400m runner, Regina George who is proving to be the real successor to Falilat Ogunkoya as Nigeria's authentic queen of the quarter-mile. Others are Omolara Omotosho (400m) and sprinter, Gloria Asumnu.

Meanwhile, the Cross River State government, sponsors of the All Nigeria Open Athletics Championships, has unveiled plans to stage a spectacular opening ceremony for this year's edition of the championships.

The state's Commissioner for Youth Development and Sports, Patrick Ugbe, told reporters Monday in Calabar that the government of Senator Liyel Imoke will organise a first-of-its-kind opening ceremony for the athletics Championships at the U.J Esuene stadium in Calabar.

''His Excellency has directed the local organising committee for the athletics championships headed by his Excellency, the deputy governor (Efiok Cobham) to organise a befitting and spectacular opening

ceremony for the championships to show our preparedness for next year's local Olympics, the National Sports Festival which we are hosting next year,'' revealed Ugbe.

The commissioner also disclosed that the state has acquired state-of-the-art electronic timing devices for all the categories of events that will be competed for at the three-day festival of track and field in Nigeria.

“We are going to use electronic timing devices for all the categories of events that will be competed for at the championships. Apart from the track events like the sprints, the quarter-mile including the quarter-mile barrier run and the long distance races which we have been using an electronic timing device for since we started sponsoring the championships three years ago, we have also acquired electronic timing device for the field events like the jumps and the throws. Each of the events in this category will have a separate electronic device so that whatever marks achieved can be adjudged as real and in conformity with international standards.''

Ugbe revealed that all these electronic timing devices were test-run early this month at the All Cross River state secondary school championships in Calabar.

“We also have a consultant we brought in from the Cameroun who has been helping with the use of the